


the heart is a bloom

by littlelamplight



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, again pretty much no slow burn, astra adopts a kid, pretty much a domestic au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-07-11 03:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7026520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlelamplight/pseuds/littlelamplight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Alex opens her apartment door a week after Kara revealed herself to the world to find a unknown woman standing on her doorstep, she is struck by the strangest impression that she knows her from somewhere. </p><p>Her second thought is that the woman is very attractive. </p><p>Alternate Meeting Au in which Astra integrated into society and adopted a kid, Alex is so screwed, and the kid ships it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

This world is so much like her own that sometimes it makes her heart ache. It is a mirror of Krypton in a younger time, when there was still hope for its fate (she knows, in her heart, that hope for her world was lost long before she started her cause) and she looks at it, at these people and at the beauty of this young, vibrant Earth, and knows that she has to save it. 

 

Non is a constant by her side, his voice ever present in her ear, talks of rebuilding Myriad and altering it to affect this species, these humans who are far more primitive than her people were, and yet, are a strange reflection. 

 

She sees the same faults, and it makes her afraid. 

 

She has the ability to save this world from a similar, disastrous fate, as Non is constantly reminding her, and it is her responsibility to do something about it. 

 

She thinks about her sister. She rages, at first, towards Alura and her decision to put duty over family. She rages, at her sister’s failure. But then that rage gives way to grief, because there is no where to direct her anger. She can’t find Alura and tell her that she was right, she can’t say,  _I warned you I told you why didn’t you listen?_ , because her sister is dead. 

 

She thinks about her sister, and that she’d said that she would save Krypton with words, with compassion and kindness. She had failed, that much is obvious, but Astra failed too. 

 

  
_There is always another way_. 

 

Myriad was a last resort. It was a last resort for a world that was on the brink of destruction. This world is not on the brink. She sees hope, here, and she thinks of Alura, and she thinks of Kara, and thinks that maybe she should try something else, first. 

 

They need to learn. They need to gather information. Whatever road they take, that is what they need to do. 

 

She spends a year learning about this world, dividing her attention between learning the language and the customs and tightening her grip on her troops, ensuring loyalty here, because she knows that many of her soldiers were loyal to her in Fort Rozz for necessity. There was a war, and in a war, you cannot afford to stand in the middle. She’ll bear the scars of that war for the rest of her life. 

 

She spends a year learning, adjusting, to this new world, to her powers, to her heightened senses which sometimes threaten to overwhelm her. She learns about traditions and social expectations and she observes, catalogues, and knows that she doesn’t know enough. 

 

If they do turn to Myriad, they need to understand how these people work. Beyond what they can learn from a distance, or from their technology. They need to  _understand_ them, their minds, how they think and what drives them. Myriad influences the mind. If they want it to work for this race, they need to know everything. 

 

She learns that these people are aware of what they are doing to the planet. That there are people trying to make it better, trying to fix it. It is such a glaring difference from her planet, that there are people who are trying to make a difference. They’re not being heard either, most of them, they are crying out into a void but there are a lot of them, and maybe what they need is a helping hand. Some guidance. 

 

Nine months after their arrival on Earth, she decides that she needs to stop observing from a distance. It is time for her to infiltrate. To become one of them. 

 

She knows exactly what she’s going to do. If she is going to infiltrate, she is going to help, at the same time. If she wants to save this planet, she can at least try to do it, try to help, without turning to her last resort first. 

 

(She doesn’t tell Non that. She doesn’t tell him that she is searching for a way to help without turning to violence, because that did not serve them well on Krypton, not at all, and she’s tired of war and death and suffering, it might be a part of her, she might never be able to leave it behind, but she is tired of it). 

 

She looks at the masses of people, at the way they are destroying this world, and she looks at those who  _know_ it, who want to change it, but have no where to go. 

 

She’s always been good and directing people. At leading. So that is what she is going to do.

 

She spends the next three months learning about how companies are run, on this world. She learns about managing money, about investments, about everything that will allow her to build her own. She does not have the time, or the desire, to wait, and she has… well, a few tricks up her sleeve, a few people to help bypass the things that these humans would need to do. She makes a list of humans who she will gather close to her, to work for her, observing their passion to help and fix and create change with a strange sense of wistfulness. 

 

She wonders if she’ll ever move past how much this world and its people remind her of her own. But she sees hope here, when there was none left on Krypton. Maybe she will still turn to Myriad, but at least she will have tried something else, first. 

 

She chooses her companions wisely. She knows that for this to work, for this company to be accepted as legitimate, for her to be accepted into this society without suspicions, she will need loyal followers. Useful followers. Most importantly, she needs people who will remain loyal to her, and only her, and who will not report back to Non if she requests they don’t. She doesn’t need spies. 

 

Her time in Fort Rozz served her well in only one way. She fought with tooth and nail to gain control of the worst criminals that had every been unfortunate enough to be captured by Krypton’s forces. She built an army of the unfaithful, and gained their respect. But she didn’t do it alone.

 

She had Jana, who had been part of their cause before they’d even been sent to Fort Rozz, who believed in that they had a legitimate chance of saving their world. She was their hacker, their intellect, their source of information concerning facilities that were ripe targets. She was the one who sent them to that facility that was supposed to be empty, but it was Non who chose to eliminate the unexpected witness. 

 

There was Raj, a humanoid telepath, whose alien origin is only distinguishable by the ridges behind his ears, long lines that run up to the top of his skull. He is loyal from the beginning, as it is the nature of his people to pay their debts until the very end, and she saved him from an early demise. 

 

There was Luther, a shapeshifter whose ancestry could be traced back to the  once fierce, proud warrior race of Vuldarians, a mercenary who had been in Fort Rozz for so long that he’d forgotten the exact time. He recognised that war was brewing within the prison’s walls, and decided that their side was more likely to succeed. Somewhere along the way, fighting aliens side by side whose powers ranged from super strength to spitting acid, where she had been as vulnerable as one of these humans, she’d earned his respect. 

 

There were others, a handful of men and women and others who would have followed her wherever she asked them to go. 

 

But she choses these three, because of their usefulness, and their ability to blend in, and they get to work. 

 

It is child's play for Jana to falsify records all the way back to their ‘births’ on this planet. It is easy, for Raj to track down the necessary people, to plant memories to back up their references, vague impressions for those people who might not remember them, after so long, and for others, vivid, individual memories, support for these identities if anyone was to look into them. 

 

They set up the company with the aid of an investment from one of the city’s millionaires, a leach on society who is easily convinced with Raj’s aid. 

 

Myriad Energy, she calls it, a private joke that does not make Non smile. Perhaps it is the first hint of the separation to come. 

 

She doesn’t stop learning, even after that one year where she did nothing  _but_ learn, and there is very little time, in those early years, to do anything but focus all her energy on the company, gathering intelligent men and women with a passion for making the world a better place around her, easy to find, easy to steer. She is good, at what she does, and she is able to shrug off Non’s insistence that she uses her company, her resources and technology, to rebuild Myriad immediately. She needs to gain the humans’ trust, and to do that, she needs to focus all her energies on this. 

 

Learning about clean energy, about investments, about running a company and micromanaging its departments, that is far easier than learning how to behave in social circles. 

 

She has an advantage, because she is beautiful and intelligent and she has, in the eyes of these people, built a fledging company up from the ground with nothing more than her own ambitions. It takes some time getting used to these peoples’ customs, and in that time, she ends up with a reputation for being removed and cold, though never cruel, never unkind, and honestly, she prefers that. It is easier, than playing pretend, because she is not like these people, and she is infiltrating their ranks, and a hint of fear is a sure way of preventing people from asking too many questions. She likes that, despite this facade, she is still who she always has been. She is still a General, gathering information for a war that she will eventually wage. 

 

She finds the glasses incredibly irritating, and she hates having to wear her hair up, constantly, having to hide the thing that marked her apart from her sister, because catching her reflection in the mirror sometimes, when she hasn’t yet put her glasses on, makes her heart wrench, sometimes. But it is another necessity, because she is very aware of the presence of a military organisation somewhere in this city (they lost people, in that year of learning, this organisation seems to be all about violence and control of aliens), and because they have taken some of her soldiers, she does not know if they have visual information on her. 

 

In those early years, she frequently feels on edge. Like there is an itch beneath her skin, like there are eyes on her back. She wants her uniform back, and she wants to fly more, and she wants to go back to living in the shadows, rather than walking in the light. She is used to that. 

 

But eventually, she finds that there is a sense of power to be found in her new uniform, suits and skirts and heals that take her almost a month to get used to wearing. A sense of security in this business that she may have cheated to create, but that has nevertheless become her own. 

 

At some point, this necessary cover becomes something she actually enjoys. She tries not to think about it. It is temporary. She’ll have to let it go, one day. Ignoring how much it feels like she’s actually building a life for herself will make leaving it behind easier, when that day comes. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Everything changes one early, foggy morning, four years after she first stepped out from the shadows. 

 

The city is never really silent, she learnt that very early. But she likes to go for walks, in the very early hours, when the light is dim, when the sun is beginning to rise, when the streets are hazy with fog and there is a sleepiness that seems to hang from everyone’s shoulders. 

 

She is walking down the street, honestly, not looking for trouble at all, when she sees a tiny child draped in layers cross the street without looking, and sees the car speeding towards her. 

 

She moves before she’s even made the decision, and the child is small and fragile and soft in her arms. She glances over her shoulder, to see that the car is still speeding away down the street, and she forgoes being angry in favour of ensuring that the child is okay. 

 

The girl is… tiny. She is wearing ridiculously oversized clothes, and her scarf covers half her face, leaving only her dark, gleaming eyes visible, and a small nose. She has beautiful dark skin, and a head of tight curls that expands like a cloud around her head. She looks up at Astra, lifting her face out of the scarf, and does not speak. 

 

‘Are you alright?’ 

 

The girl just stares at her, owlishly, her bottom lip protruding in a pout, and doesn’t answer her question. Astra frowns slightly. She drops down into a crouch, so that she is not looming over the girl, and touches her arm slightly. ‘Are you alright?’ she repeats, as softly as she can. 

 

The girl nods. Astra blinks. ‘Where are your parents?’ 

 

The girl just stares at her. 

 

Astra frowns. She tries not to let the girl’s silence concern her, because despite how long it has been since she needed to, she remembers why children are sometimes like this. She remembers refusing to speak herself, when she was a child, probably the same age as this girl, when the way her parents treated her, the way they looked at her and Alura like they were stains on their lives, would make her so frustrated and angry and miserable, that she was afraid of speaking. Afraid that if she did, she’d let it all out, and that would only make things worse. 

 

She touches her hand to her own chest, and says, ‘I’m Astra. What is your name? Is there anywhere I can take you?’ 

 

The girl shakes her head. Astra stands slowly, and reaches into her pocket to pull out her phone. ‘Can I call anyone?’ 

 

The girl shakes her head again. She reaches up, and fits her hand into Astra’s, and holds it tightly. Astra blinks.  _Oh_. 

 

There is part of her that desperately wants to pull her hand away, but the other part of her, the part that has been starved for this kind of physical affection, is far stronger. So she curls her fingers around the girl’s hand, and squeezes in a way that she hopes is reassuring. 

 

She has no idea what to do, because she can’t leave this girl, who can’t be older than five years old, wandering the streets. But she knows better than to push children when they don’t want to talk. 

 

She looks down at this small girl, who is looking up at her with wide, pleading eyes, and knows exactly what she’s going to do, even if Jana would call it a rash decision. 

 

She takes the girl home with her. 

 

Maybe it is a mistake, maybe it is unwise, maybe the humans would frown on it if they knew, but she can’t leave the girl wandering around in the street, and the girl has still refused to say a word. 

 

She hopes that the reason is simply because the girl is shy, not because of a trauma in her life. If the latter is true, if she is afraid of something because of someone, Astra might have to break her ‘no kill’ streak. 

 

She calls Jana to reschedule any prior commitments, and the girl watches her carefully as she does. Some of the left over tension in the girl’s shoulders drains once she has, and she takes it as a good sign. 

 

She makes the girl a hot chocolate, and sits beside her on the touch while she drinks it. She watches her, and tries to understand more about her from her physical appearance. 

 

She doesn’t look like she’s suffered, but she knows that not all scars are visible from the outside. She wonders if the girl comes from a poor household, because the jacket she is wearing is oversized, puffy and long, it comes almost down to her knees, and her sleeves have been rolled up several times. The scarf around her neck almost reaches the ground when she stands still, and her shoes look worn. 

 

The girl is small and vulnerable, and doesn’t have a name. Astra looks at the way the light gleams in her eyes, and thinks that perhaps they could be stars.  _Little star_ , she dubs her silently, and that is what she calls her, in her head, from then on.

 

The girl does not speak to her. She sits close to her, sipping the drink slowly, and gradually, starts to move closer to her. Astra pretends not to notice. She retrieves her novel from the coffee table, and settles back into the couch, and pretends to be completely absorbed in the written words. 

 

By the time she has read four chapters, becoming absorbed despite herself, the girl is leaning heavily against her, and she has the impression that the child is reading along with her. 

 

She lifts her arm slowly, and wraps it around the girl’s shoulders. The girl sags against her, and Astra feels something in her heart melt. 

 

‘Will you tell me your name now, little star?’ 

 

The girl breaks her silence, and she has a soft, high voice that pulls at Astra’s heart strings. ‘Tanya’. 

 

  
_Tanya_. It suits her, though she could not explain how, or why, if asked. 

 

‘Will you tell me how to find your parents, Tanya? They must be missing you’. 

 

Tanya doesn’t stiffen, but wiggles, pressing against her more. Instead of answering her question, she says, ‘you’re a superhero’. 

 

Astra laughs softly. ‘No, little star. Not quite’. 

 

‘But you have powers. You’re an alien, like Superman. And you saved my life’. 

 

Astra sighs heavily, unconsciously beginning to run her fingers through Tanya’s hair, in an attempt to sooth her. She’s a little startled that the girl doesn’t seem at all fazed by the fact that yes, she is an alien. ‘That is true, little star. But no, I am not a hero’. 

 

Tanya sits up beside her suddenly, reaches up, and grabs her face. Astra freezes. No one has touched her like that, soft and tender and caring, in over twenty years. Not since Kara, and her throat is tight, and she can’t breathe. Tanya leans forward, and Astra can see the flecks of gold in her warm, soft eyes, like glittering stars. ‘Well, you’re mine’, she says softly, her mouth curling in a smile that makes her cheeks dimple, oh god, she has  _dimples_ , ‘you’re  _my_  hero. Thats something’. 

 

Astra puts her book down, presses her hands against Tanya’s shoulders, and smiles, and she knows that her eyes are gleaming, she knows that her smile is more like a grimace. ‘Thank you, little star’. 

 

Tanya lets go of her face, and hugs her, and Astra freezes. 

 

Her hands hover over Tanya’s shoulders, and they are shaking. She can feel the girl’s small hands grasping at her shirt, tight little fists, and the girl’s hair is tickling her cheek. She is warm and soft against her, and she stays there, and doesn’t let go. 

 

Tanya smells like the cold, but it is not like the cold of Fort Rozz. Fort Rozz smelt dank and damp and dark, a kind of cold that was numbing, that would seep into her bones until it felt like there was icicles in her veins, like it would crack her apart if she stays still for too long. Tanya smells crisp and clear, like an early morning fog, like freshly fallen rain, like  _life_ , and Astra feels that tight sensation in her throat surge up into her mouth, and she suddenly feels like she is going to cry. 

 

She hasn’t been hugged like this since Kara. Since she held her niece in her arms and promised her that she would save her. 

 

She doesn’t think she’ll ever forgive herself for breaking that promise. 

 

She bows her hands to Tanya’s shoulders, wraps her arms tightly around her, and ducks her face against her shoulder. She breathes in deeply, and closes her eyes tightly in an attempt to contain the burn behind her eyes.

 

There is something stirring in her heart that she hasn’t felt in a long, long time, that she hasn’t allowed herself to feel, because it has always hurt, the memory, the feeling, of how much she loved her niece. 

 

But she holds this small girl in her arms, and for the first since Alura sentenced her to Fort Rozz, it does not hurt.

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Astra wakes up the next morning with a crick in her neck, and a heavy weight on her chest. She feels warm and tired, and strangely content, and for a long moment, blinking slowly to get her bearings, she isn’t sure why. 

 

Then she looks down, and realises that Tanya is fast asleep, sprawled over her with her head pressed against her stomach. One of her hands is resting next to her face, her fingers curled loosely against her chin, and the other is resting on Astra’s arm. 

 

She is reminded so strongly of Kara in that moment, her precious niece who deserved the world, that she can barely breathe. She closes her eyes, and focuses on the weight of the sleeping girl, on the steady thump of her heartbeat, and gradually, the tight vice around her throat loosens. 

 

She opens her eyes, and stares down at Tanya, watching her back rise as she breathes, taking in the slight smile quirking the corner of her mouth, the way her cheek is squished against her ribs, the way her hair falls forward over her forehead. She lifts her hand, and smooths the girl’s hair back, brushing it away from the back of her neck. She rests her hand there, for a moment, running her thumb over the girls cheek, and something in her chest, something in her heart, aches, tightens, and clicks into place. 

 

How can she build Myriad, when she knows that there is still hope for this world? How can she turn to her last resort, when there are still so many other options? She genuinely believes that she is doing some good, that she can, and will, do some good with this company that was originally no more than a means to an end. 

 

How can she take the freedom from these people, when her time in Fort Rozz still haunts her?

 

How can she rip dozens of families apart, when the people she loved have become her ghosts?

 

Tanya opens her eyes suddenly, and Astra drops her hand from her face. The girl lifts her head, and crosses her arms over Astra’s torso, resting her chin there. The left side of her face is read, an indentation from Astra’s shirt running down her cheek. She smiles sleepily, and Astra feels her lips curl in an immediate response. ‘Good morning, little star’. 

 

Tanya giggles. ‘Why do you keep calling me that?’ 

 

Astra feels her smile widen, and she shakes her head slightly. ‘We both have our secrets, don’t we?’

 

A faint, adorable frown creases the girl’s brow, and Astra feels her heart melt, just a little more, any defences she erected before she fell asleep crashing down at the glint in the girl’s eyes. ‘Are you going to make me go back?’

 

‘Someone is missing you, little star’.

 

‘No one misses me’.

 

Astra frowns. She lifts her hand, and smooths it through the girl’s hair, curling a lock around her finger. ‘I’m sure that is not true’.

 

Tanya stares at her for a long moment, gnawing on her bottom lip. ‘I’m an orphan’, she says suddenly, ‘all I have is an orphanage’. 

 

Astra cups the back of the girl’s head, rubbing her fingers at the base of her skull, seeking to smooth out tension. ‘Did you run away? Is that what you were doing out there so early?’

 

Tanya nods, and her eyes gleam with tears. Astra sits up slowly, and pulls the girl onto her lap. Tanya clings to her tightly, tucking her head beneath Astra’s chin, and Astra rocks the girl back and forth gently while she shakes. 

 

She thinks about how this girl, who cannot be more than five years old, who is small and fragile in her arms, who looked at her with awe rather than fear, who is comfortable enough around her to have fallen asleep on her (when was the last time someone trusted her like that, without any reservation?), is as alone in this world as she was, once, before Jana and Raj and Luther became something like friends. 

 

She understands that kind of loneliness to her very bones. 

 

In that moment, she makes a decision that will change her life completely. 

 

‘I have to take you back, little star, you know that. But… if you like, I could come back for you?’

 

Tanya pulls back, her eyes as wide as saucers. Astra has never seen someone look so hopeful in her life, and by Rao, this decision feels huge and perhaps a little reckless, but it also feels  _right_. ‘Do you mean it?’

 

‘If that is what you wish, little star’. 

 

Tanya launches at her, flinging her arms around her neck, and even though Astra is an immovable object in comparison to this child, she lets herself fall back onto the couch with the girl on top of her, and laughs, for the first time in decades, laughs as the girl repeats,  _thank you thank you thank you_ , over and over, laughs, and the sensation in her chest makes her feel light and warm. 

 

Tanya props herself up with her elbows on Astra’s shoulders, and rests her chin in her hands. ‘You promise?’

 

Astra grins, and when she speaks, it is in a language completely alien to this world, and one that she has desperately missed speaking. ‘ _I promise’._  


Tanya giggles again. ‘What kind of language is that?’ 

 

Astra blinks. She hadn’t meant to slip into her language. ‘It is… from my own world, little star’.

 

Perhaps Tanya sees a hint of the sadness that dreads up, because she turns deadly serious. ‘Will you teach me? It can be our… secret language, if you want?’ 

 

Astra laughs again (oh Rao, she hasn’t laughed in so long, and it is coming so freely to her now) and cranes her neck up to kiss Tanya’s forehead. Her heart feels so full she feels like it might burst. She can’t really remember the last time she felt this warm, like for the first time in four years, the cold of Fort Rozz has finally left her bones. ‘ _Promise’,_ she repeats. 

 

Tanya’s brow furrows again, and she sounds out the word very, very slowly. Astra repeats it, and Tanya responds, until she has it right. ‘Well done, little star’. 

 

Tanya lifts her hand, her little finger extended. ‘You did different things on your planet. Here, we pinky promise’. 

 

‘Pinky promise?’

 

When Astra lifts her hand, Tanya links their littlest fingers together. ‘Pinky promise’. 

 

‘Ah. Well, I always keep my promises, little star. I must return you, but as soon as possible, I will be back for you. Pinky promises and all’. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

She calls Raj seconds after she has left the orphanage. 

 

‘How long will it take for you to obtain an application for the legal adoption of a child, Raj?’

 

_‘Good morning to you too, General’._

‘Raj’. 

 

_‘You do know that you have a meeting in half an hour?’_

‘Raj’. 

 

_‘One with a potentially very beneficial outcome’._

‘Raj!’

 

The young man chuckles. ‘ _Relax, General. I submitted it last night when Luther did his security sweep of your house and saw you both curled up on the couch’._ The smirk in his voice is incredibly obvious. If he had spoken to her like that when this began, she would’ve reprimanded him, harshly. But these three have become something like her friends, and they all know that.  _‘I’m told it was a sight to make a man quake in his boots’._  


Astra stops still in the street. ‘I’m sorry, did you say that Luther did a security sweep of my house? Why?’

 

There is a beat of silence.  _‘Jana’s still in contact with several of your more loyal supporters back in Fort Rozz, General. There is some growing descent. You must know that your Lieutenant was never really on board with this plan of yours, and apparently he isn’t pleased with how long your infiltration is taking’._  


Astra scoffs. ‘Non was never one for the bigger picture’. 

 

There is another pause.  _‘You know he’s not going to be happy about this adoption. What are you going to do about it?’_  


Astra grinds her teeth together. ‘Like you said, Raj, I have a meeting to attend. But there is a gap in my schedule. I would appreciate it if the three of you met with me to discuss our next move’. 

 

She doesn’t want to tell them of the decision she came to, when she woke up on that couch. Not yet. Because she is certain in it. She knows that she cannot do this anymore. That she is going to break away from Non and their cause. But she can’t tell Raj that, not over the phone. 

 

The idea that they might leave her once they learn the truth twists something in her heart. She has come to rely on them, come to trust them in a way she never thought she would, after Alura’s betrayal, and yet she does. She doesn’t want to lose them. 

 

Alura once told her that there was always another way, when she tried to justify what she had done, the path she had taken. She hadn’t believed her. She couldn’t. 

 

But she has found another way, without really realising it, through founding this company, through working towards a better future under the pretence of learning about the enemy. 

 

She just doesn’t want to tread this new path alone. 

 

The meeting goes smoothly, and she is able to focus almost entirely on what is being said, on what they are discussing, despite this nagging fear at the back of her mind. 

 

She waits for them on her private balcony, a little green retreat she has created for herself, the walls lined with pot plants that spill ivy that climbs the walls, flowers of blue and yellow and pale pink, and it is a blessed relief, sometimes, to step out of her office into this place that smells like vitality and life, and all the things that this young world has to offer that Krypton had destroyed. 

 

Jana is the first to arrive, appearing suddenly by Astra’s side to lean on the balcony rail. She is a much shorter than Astra, even with her heels, and so she has to look up at Astra. Her full lips quirk in a smile, and Astra’s eyes are drawn, as always, to the scar marring her upper lip. Like all Kryptonians, Jana looks entirely human, but that scar is a reminder of a night that neither of them are likely to forget, a night on Fort Rozz when Astra was pinned down with a number of her followers, and was sure that they were all going to die. ‘So’, Jana says, a knowing glint sparkling in her dark, intelligent eyes, ‘you’re adopting a child? Was that plan a part of your cover all along?’

 

Astra smiles slightly, looking out towards the horizon. ‘No’, she says, ‘it was not’. 

 

‘And here I thought you disapproved of impulsive actions’.

 

‘You disapprove?’ 

 

‘I would never dare to question my General’s decisions’, Jana says, her voice dripping with sarcasm, the corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement. 

 

Astra feels her smile widen. She shakes her head slightly. ‘Oh, yes you would. You never had a problem voicing your opinions before. But thats why I’ve called you all here. The explanation can wait’. 

 

Luther arrives, Raj hurrying along beside him, and the young telepath almost looks like a child, walking beside the older, larger man. Luther towers over all of them, a dark skinned, muscular man with tattoos curling up his arms. His fake background is ex-military, and he chose a form to fit that. His eyes are kind though, and Astra knows that despite his mercenary background, that is not a facade. In comparison, Raj doesn’t even come up to his shoulder, and the beanie pulled down to hide his distinctive ridges makes him look very small, but there are similar characteristics in their faces, the same dark skin and kind eyes, the same proud set to their mouthes. They are brothers, according to their files. 

 

Luther folds his arms over his chest, and says, ‘a kid?’ 

 

Astra takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. She reaches up, and takes her glasses off. She twirls them between her fingers, in what she knows is an uncharacteristic display of anxiety. ‘Its more than that’. She lifts her head, straightens her spine, and lets her gaze move over them. ‘I am… intending to cut ties with Non. With my cause. I no longer believe that Myriad is the best approach. I…’ she smiles slightly, wistfully, ‘I have found another way, of helping this world’. 

 

The three of them exchange glances, but while she’s watching for surprise, she does not see it. Jana’s mouth is still quirked in amusement, and Raj leans casually against Luther’s side, unfazed when the older man steps away, but it looks like he’s biting back a smile. She’s not sure what to think of that. ‘I’ve made my decision. You are of course, free to leave, now that this mission is ending’. 

 

Jana laughs, and Raj grins. But it is Luther who responds, speaking firmly, his eyes soft and understanding. ‘This stopped being a mission a long time ago, General. This is our life, now’. 

 

Raj is shaking his head, like he can’t quite believe what she’s just said. ‘We’d follow you anywhere, General. I’d have thought you knew that by now’. 

 

Jana reaches out, and grasps her shoulder. She isn’t smiling anymore, and instead, she looks deadly serious. ‘We’ve relied on each other for years now, General. We are all that we have left. We’re not going to abandon you’. 

 

For a split second, Astra feels so overwhelmed that she cannot speak. Then she laughs, a slightly choked, breathless sound. She’s never really had friends before. ‘Well, I’m not your General, anymore. You can all drop the title’. 

 

Luther smiles. ‘Astra’, he says, and Raj almost winces, ‘what are we going to do about Non, then? We’re going to have a corporation to protect, and very soon, a child. How are we going to protect our family?’

 

Raj looks momentarily panicked at the word  _family_ , as if he doesn’t believe that this switch to casual speech will happen easily. Jana’s eye twitches slightly. 

 

Astra is filled with that warm sensation she experienced when Tanya was sprawled across her. She smiles, a slow curve of her mouth, and she sees recognition in their eyes. They know what that means. ‘Oh’, she says, sliding her glasses back onto her nose, and brushing non existent creases from her skirt, ‘I have a few ideas’.

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Seven years later, Myriad Energy is known as one of the foremost leading companies in clean energy, having won awards for its revolutionary advances in the field (Astra built Myriad, designed it all on her own, discovering new ways to harness this world’s energy without further damaging the environment is not really a jump). Its powerful, somewhat reclusive CEO is respected and liked by most, and still, no one is none the wiser. 

 

Astra knows that she is a very different person than she was years ago, before adopting Tanya, before making the decision to take the slower, better path to saving this world.  _She_  is better. Krypton’s destruction still hurts to think about, but it is… more of a scar, now, one that might never really fade, rather than an open, raw wound that has never healed.

 

Her opinion of the humans has changed too. She moves in a circle of society that reminds her eerily of her parents’ friends and associates back on Krypton, the powerful and the wealthy and the ambitious. She doesn’t like all of them, though she is perfectly civil unless pushed. Maxwell Lord, her direct competitor in the technological field of her company, is one such man. She dislikes him immensely, though she has never revealed that. There is something about the way he looks her, with a smug, self satisfied smirk, like she is something to be won or beaten, that makes her fingers twitch. She could snap his neck without even exerting herself, but she doesn’t kill people anymore. 

 

(He doesn’t not know or suspect who she truly is. She’s had Raj check five times). 

 

She likes Cat Grant, however, this powerful, fiercely intelligent woman who built her company up with nothing more than her mind and her ambitions. They do not see each other that often, but there is a shared respect between them, she thinks. Astra's might be greater, really, because she did cheat in a sense, when she began all this. She likes to think she’s earned it, now. Their children are of similar ages, too (they are friends, Astra learnt recently, but she doesn’t think that Cat knows that), and with all their similarities, Astra thinks that they could be friends, if she opened up a bit. There is a very good reason why she hasn’t. 

 

Of the two of them, Max and Cat, two very different people on different ends of a spectrum, Astra thinks that Cat would be more likely to work out who she really is. Perhaps that is why she’s never granted the woman an interview. 

 

She likes her life, now. She misses Krypton (Alura, Kara, by Rao, she misses her niece) but she is not alone, anymore. She likes to think that she is honouring their memories, by working towards a better future in a way she thinks Alura would have approved of. 

 

And then, a week after what marks the anniversary of the day she adopted Tanya, everything changes. 

 

She is working late, back at home, finalising the paperwork for another donation to one of the city’s orphanages, sitting with her legs curled beneath her on the couch, half listening to Tanya telling Jana and Raj and Luther about her day, about how someone tried to take Carter’s lunch, so she stole their pocket money in retaliation (Astra really needs to have a talk with them about how stealing is frowned upon in this world, even though they clearly know that). She gets distracted by the sharp slap of two hands colliding in a high five (she once responded to Raj’s request to high five her and broke his hand, accidentally), and she looks up. 

 

Her gaze is drawn to the muted TV, and she sees a news report of -

 

She moves faster than she has in years, sending papers scattering over the couch and to the floor, she knocks against the coffee table and hears the glass crack and she doesn’t care, and when she turns the volume up she doesn’t take her finger off the button, and the sound blasts through the quiet living room, shattering her ear drums and she doesn’t care. 

 

The news report is of a young woman standing on the wing of a plane, and the heading tells her exactly what she needs to know, and she can’t see the woman’s face, all the picture captures is a gleam of golden hair but she knows, she  _knows_ , and by Rao, this is a terrible, terrible hope and she shouldn't give in to but it is  _Kara,_ she knows it is, and the remote in her hand snaps in two. 

 

She feels arms around her waist, and she looks down at Tanya, Tanya, her brow creased in concern, and she drops down to her knees and pulls her daughter in for a hug, and she has to be careful because she feels like she might lose control, but Tanya hugs her back fiercely, and the raging storm inside her calms. 

 

She looks over Tanya’s shoulder at her three friends. Jana looks openly shocked, her mouth hanging open, as she stares at the screen, like she too, recognises the figure, and that makes the hope inside her flare. Luther steps up towards her, and Astra cranes her neck up to look at him. He touches her back lightly, his eyes warm with compassion and understanding. ‘Leave this to us, General. We’ll find her’. 

 

She nods, and swallows tightly. ‘Do not approach her, and be careful not to let her know of your presence’. 

 

Raj frowns. ‘Why not?’

 

It is Jana who speaks, her mouth closing with a snap, her jaw clenching once before she says, ‘the military keeps a close eye on Kal-El, Raj. Theres a chance they might be doing the same here. They might even know exactly who she is. We lost enough people to this organisation when we first arrived. If we’re not careful, we might lose everything else’. 

 

She turns off the TV, and touches the top of Tanya’s head as she passes. ‘We’ll be careful, Astra. And we will find her’. 

 

Astra believes her. She has never had any reason to doubt them, after all. 

 

When they have left, Astra tucks her face against her daughter’s shoulder, and thinks,  _Kara_ , over and over again,  _Kara, alive_ , and she almost doesn’t know how to process this information. 

 

  
_‘It will be okay, Mom’_ , Tanya murmurs, clipped kryptonian syllables, and it suddenly hits Astra that she might get her niece back, her Little One, when she already has this, this beautiful child who has become the light of her life. 

 

She’s never believed in miracles, not after everything that she has seen, not after what she has suffered, but by Rao, that idea, that possibility, that is as close to a miracle as she has ever known. 

 

  
_Yes_ , she thinks.  _It will be okay._  


 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

When Alex opens her apartment door a week after Kara revealed herself to the world to find a unknown woman standing on her doorstep, she is struck by the strangest impression that she knows her from somewhere. 

 

Her second thought is that the woman is very attractive. Then she blinks, and takes in what she is wearing, the blue silk blouse, the dark tailored skirt that ends just above her knees, the sensible high heals. Alex blinks again, and drags her gaze back up long legs and flattering clothing to her face. The woman has glasses perched on her nose, dark hair twisted up on the back of her head, and Alex’s eyes fixate briefly on a single lock of hair that has come lose, curling softly against her jaw. 

 

Then she blinks again, and says, ‘err…do I know you?’ 

 

The woman’s hands are folded in front of her, and Alex watches her tap the fingers of her left rapidly against the back of her right. Despite the woman’s poise, the cool, calm control she seems to radiate, Alex recognises that as a clear sign of anxiety. The woman clears her throat. ‘Alexandra Danvers?’, she asks, and her voice is low and rich and confident, a hint of an unidentifiable accent, and Alex really shouldn’t be focusing on that. 

 

  
_Business woman,_ Alex thinks,  _definitely a business woman._ ‘Its Alex to most people’, she says, staring at the woman’s face, because it is beginning to irritate her, how familiar this woman seems, and she can’t place it. ‘Whose asking?’

 

The woman tilts her head slightly, and the gesture screams at Alex, like she should know it, she should recognise it. ‘I am. We have a lot to talk about’. 

 

The name sounds vaguely familiar, and that, on top of everything else that seems familiar, and the fact that Alex knows she looked thrown when she opened the door, is incredibly irritating. ‘Oh?’

 

The woman sighs heavily, reaches up, and removes her glasses. 

 

Alex has never been fooled by Kara’s disguise, but she is so physically thrown by the reveal that she starts back. She knows that her mouth is hanging open. ‘Alura?’

 

The woman jerks, like Alex has slapped her, and the cool poise is washed away, replaced by surprise and pain. Then she blinks, and its gone. ‘Ah’, she says, a very faint smile curving her lips, ‘so you do have our files. But no, I am not Alura. My name is Astra’. 

 

_Astra._

‘You’re…’ she stops herself, stops, because she was about to reveal her relationship to Kara, but then she realises that of course, this must be why the woman has come to her. She clears her throat, and says, ‘you’re Kara’s aunt’. 

 

Astra's faint smile grows at the sound of Kara’s name, and it makes her eyes sparkle. ‘I am’. 

 

She stares at the woman for a moment. She thinks about the fact that this woman must have been on Earth for quite a while, judging by the way she is holding herself, the way she seems entirely comfortable, that she is not wincing at sounds or smells. There is only one explanation, for that. ‘You’re one of the Fort Rozz aliens, aren’t you’. 

 

It is not a question. Astra nods, a gleam of what might be approval shining in her eyes. ‘You’re quick. You must be quite high up in your organisation’. She smiles again when Alex blinks. ‘Oh yes, I know. That is why I am here. I… I miss my niece’, she says, and there is affection in her eyes, a wistful lilt to her voice, a softness that Alex decides is completely genuine. ‘I want - I need, to see her again’. 

 

‘And why have you waited?’

 

‘As you said, I was once an occupant of Fort Rozz, Alexandra’. 

 

‘Was? And its Alex’. 

 

Astra smiles again. ‘ _Alex_ ’, she corrects, and her accent seems momentarily more pronounced as she says it, ‘I have… if your organisation decides that I am a threat… I have a lot to lose’. 

 

‘Are you a threat?’ 

 

Astra raises an eyebrow, and her mouth curves in a slow smile. ‘Do  _you_  think I’m a threat?’

 

Alex stares at her for a moment. They both know that with Astra’s superior strength, Alex would be dead in a second, if that was what the other woman wanted. But Astra is here for Kara, to see her again, the desire for that reunion is blatantly obvious, from the affection that Alex saw in her eyes, to the way her fingers are tapping together nervously. Alex narrows her eyes slightly, and then after another pause, she steps aside. ‘Come in’. 

 

Astra steps into her apartment, and Alex wonders briefly what she is doing. This is not protocol. But then again, nothing is when it comes to her sister, and Astra has become part of that. ‘Can I get you a drink?’ 

 

Astra shakes her head. ‘No, thank you’. 

 

Alex feels a little bit like she needs one, but she decides that maybe that isn’t the best idea. ‘So’, she says, sitting down on the couch a safe distance from the woman, ‘you said that you were an occupant of Fort Rozz. We’ve had quite a bit of trouble with them recently, so I’m assuming that you’re not with them anymore?’

 

‘What do you know of Myriad Energy, Alex?’

 

Alex watches Astra cross her legs and settle back against the couch, entirely at ease, like she has total control of the situation. She tries to recall what Kara told her about her aunt, and remembers suddenly that she’d been in the military. Perhaps that is where the confidence comes from. ‘The clean energy company? Why -’ She stops suddenly. She looks over Astra’s outfit again, at the very faint smile, and understands. ‘You work for them?’

 

Astra inclines her head slightly. ‘In a manner of speaking. I founded it’. 

 

Alex blinks.  _Okay,_ she thinks,  _powerful in more ways than one._ ‘So you integrated into society? Without anyone being suspicious? How did you manage that?’

 

Astra shakes her head slightly. ‘I can’t reveal everything, Alex. Not without some guarantee from you’. 

 

Alex shifts forwards slightly, frowning. ‘What kind of guarantee? If you know that I’m part of the DEO, which, by the way, is another question, then you must know that I can’t just… not report your existence’. 

 

Astra licks her lips, and sits up. ‘In answer to that, when I saw Kara reveal herself to the world, I did some… reconnaissance. When I first crashed to Earth in Fort Rozz, some of the inhabitants were immediately captured by your organisation. We learnt to tread carefully, and that those who attempted to approach were simply met with aggression. We learnt that if we were to survive here, we would have to learn all on our own’. 

 

Alex’s frown deepens. ‘That… things are different now. We have policies, for aliens who we deem to be harmless to society. Our aim is to integrate them if we can’. 

 

‘Well I have done that part for you’. 

 

Alex sighs heavily. ‘So what do you want from me? Is it because you worked out that I am obviously close to Kara?’

 

‘You’re her sister, are you not?’ Astra sounds almost wistful, at that, and Alex remembers that she lost her twin to Krypton, thirty six years ago. It makes her soften, just a little. She has to remember that however much this feels a little like an interrogation, this woman is here because she wants to see Kara again. Alex nods, and Astra smiles. ‘Yes. I came here because during my observations, I discovered the nature of your relationship. You love her, and you care for her, and I hoped that that would… allow me to approach you, so that we could come to terms’. She frowns. ‘I would’ve preferred to go straight to Kara, but I did not want to risk exposing myself if your organisation is still what it used to be’. 

 

Alex nods slowly, frowning again. The fact that this woman so easily discovered her relationship to Kara is a little worrisome. ‘Well, it is not. If you’re worried about us… taking your life from you, and imprisoning you, you don’t have to. As long as you’re not a threat, you can go on living as normal. I’ll have to confirm it with my Director, and he’ll want to talk to you, but you don’t have to fear us, if you truly mean no harm’. 

 

Astra stares at her for a long, tense moment. Alex feels strangely exposed under the woman’s intense look, the way her eyes move up and down her very slowly, as if searching for a lie. Then Astra nods, once, like she has understood something. ‘I believe you, Alex’. 

 

‘So you’re willing to explain things?’

 

‘Of course. But…’ she licks her lips again, and sits up straighter. ‘I would like to see Kara, first’. 

 

There is something about the fact that Astra came to her first, rather than rushing in blindly and potentially putting Kara at risk (from these aliens that she has left behind, from the DEO, if Astra believed Kara was unaware of being monitored, which she was, until several days ago) that Alex can respect. It makes her feel less like she is taking huge risk, here. 

 

But she believes this woman, somehow, believes every word she has uttered, because there is something in her eyes, a warmth, a life, a sparkle, that reminds her so much of Kara that it almost hurts. ‘I think we can manage that’. 

 

Astra moves closer suddenly, reaching out to touch Alex’s knee, and her smile is so bright and warm that Alex feels momentarily blinded. ‘Thank you, Alex’, she says, and she sounds breathless and hopeful and eager, and strangely young, ‘thank you’. 

 

Alex tries to focus on anything aside from the warm pressure of the woman’s hand on her knee, anything else, because she feels like the touch is burning her. This is Kara’s aunt, she reminds herself, who she just met, and she’s going to have to move past the fact that she also happens to be incredibly attractive.

 

She looks at the warmth of the woman’s smile, that single lock of hair curled against her jaw, and the soft gleam of her eyes, and thinks that it is definitely going to be difficult. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

When Kara arrives, and sees Astra sitting on the couch, the look on her face is one that Alex has never seen before, a mix of shock and awe and a kind of unbridled joy that makes her incredibly glad that she made this decision. 

 

Astra surges to her feet as Kara lunges forward, and they collide with such force that Alex feels it in the air, like a muted shock wave, and any lasts shreds of aloofness vanishes from Astra’s expression. Their smiles are infectious, and Alex turns away to give them some space, unable to contain her own grin. 

 

She retreats to the kitchen, to give them some space, because she thinks that they deserve it, after being separated for so long, and she deliberately bangs around, slamming cupboards and knocking cups together, just so that they know that they cannot be heard. 

 

She tries, as she potters about the kitchen, to remember what Kara told her about Astra. 

 

She remembers that Astra had been Kara’s hero. That she’d been in awe of her aunt, who went off on adventures every day, exploring planets and learning about other cultures, that she’d always come to visit with a new story tucked under her belt. She wonders if Kara knew that because Astra was in the military, those trips would not have been as peaceful as one might assume. But she also remembers that Kara had loved to just talk to her aunt, because her aunt spoke to her like she was an adult, she didn’t treat her like a child. She remembers tales of spy beacons and laughter, and when she looks at Astra now, she thinks that the years haven’t changed much. Or, if they have, it is not as noticeable as she might expect. Perhaps Astra has found ways to heal, just like Kara. She doesn’t know why that idea makes her smile widen. 

 

She stops banging about in the kitchen, and instead leans against the counter to watch them, now that they have settled down, just incase she hears something about Fort Rozz, so that Hank won’t have to ask the same questions. 

 

There is a faint frown furrowing Kara’s brow. Astra twists her hands together, clearing noticing the way Kara has suddenly gone very silent. ‘Is something wrong, Little One?’

 

Kara licks her lips, and shakes her head slightly. She reaches out to take her aunt’s hand again, and Astra grips it tightly. ‘No’.

 

It is clear that Astra does not believe her, however, because she frowns slightly. ‘Do you… are you upset that I couldn’t find you? I looked, Little One. In the year before I started my company, I watched Kal-El, for a while. I hoped that you may have survived, and if you had, he would know. But I learnt nothing’. She sighs heavily. ‘I… I gave up, I am ashamed to say. But it felt like false hope’. 

 

Kara moves her left hand so it is covering their joined fingers. Her frown deepens, and she shakes her head. ‘I’m not upset about that, Aunt Astra. I understand. I promise you that. I just… you’ve known about my existence for a week. Why didn’t you come to me straight away? Why did you go to Alex first?’

 

Alex watches Astra’s shoulders droop a little, and wonders if the woman had expected this. ‘I knew that Alexandra was part of the DEO, Little One. I was… afraid of what might happen to me if I revealed myself to you. I have a lot to lose if your Director deems that I am a threat’. 

 

‘He won’t, Astra’. Alex speaks without really thinking, and she is such an outsider here, really, she’s not a part of this reunion, and she should keep back, but the sudden urge to reassure Astra that she wasn’t lying had been impossible to quell. 

 

Kara glances at her, something undefinable in her eyes, and Alex swallows, looking away. She knows that Kara is still… sore, about the fact that Alex didn’t tell her about the DEO. She knows that, and there is very little she can do about it. She didn’t want to lie to her sister, but she feels justified in her decision to keep it hidden. 

 

Before Kara can say anything, a muted buzzing sound fills the silence. Astra blinks, and pulls her hands from Kara’s. She reaches into the small purse she brought with her, and pulls out her phone. The smile that flashes across her face is so abrupt and startling that Alex blinks. ‘Excuse me, Little One. I must take this’. 

 

She hits accept, brings the phone to her ear, and says, foreign syllables that Alex can nevertheless perfectly understand,  _‘hello, my little star’._  


Kara starts, staring, and Alex hears the buzz of another voice responding, and Kara’s jaw drops. Her eyes widen, and she looks almost comical, for a moment, and Alex feels completely out of the loop, because Kara looks almost as shocked as she did when she saw Astra sitting on the couch. Astra glances at Kara, and her smile fades a little. She reaches out and grasps Kara’s hand, a physical reassurance, perhaps, for an explanation to whatever has Kara so thrown. The corner of her mouth quirks, and her eyes are shining with affection.  _‘Yes I am’,_ her smile widens, and Alex feels something in her chest clench, at the  _love_ in Astra’s eyes, in her voice, because there is something about seeing it, exposed and unrestrained, not directed solely towards Kara, but left open for all to see, that makes Alex ache in a way that she can’t really explain.  _‘Yes, of course. I will tell her. Luther will pick you up. I love you too, little star’._  


She hangs up, and that warmth in her expression does not leave her, and Kara immediately blurts, ‘you have a kid?!’

 

Astra smiles. ‘Tanya’. She glances at Kara’s face, and her smile widens. ‘She is human, Kara, just like your sister. I adopted her seven years ago’. 

 

The shock fades from Kara’s expression, and she suddenly grins, blinding and unreserved, and Alex feels a little overwhelmed by the brightness of these two women, by the rays of sun that seem trapped behind their eyes. ‘We both found families, then, didn’t we?’

 

Astra shifts closer to Kara, and the younger woman opens her arms to hug her immediately. The tension that had filled the room before is gone, like Kara has suddenly understood exactly what Astra was afraid of losing. ‘She knows about me?’ Kara asks, and she sounds terribly excited. 

 

‘Of course. She’s very excited to meet you’. 

 

Kara pulls away, and tilts her head slightly. ‘You taught her kryptonian. So does she… know?’ 

 

Astra laughs. ‘Does she know that I’m an alien? Of course. I have…’ she frowns slightly. ‘I have never lied to her, or kept anything from her. How could I hide the most important thing about me from her?'

 

Kara’s smile fades slightly, and even though she doesn’t look at Alex, Alex know exactly what Kara is thinking, and god, it hurts. 

 

She glances up then, away from Kara’s face, from the darkness that has settled on her brow, like she’s remembering how betrayed she felt when she found out that Alex lied to her, and catches Astra’s eye. 

 

There is a softness around Astra’s mouth, a warmth in her eyes, and when she tilts her head slightly, Alex sees sympathy and understanding, and something like absolution. 

 

She realises, then, that if Astra knew that Alex worked for the DEO, she knew that Kara didn’t know, not until several days ago. She knew that, and so maybe that is why she is looking at her like she would grant her forgiveness on Kara’s behalf, if she asked. 

 

Alex doesn’t know Astra. Astra is Kara’s family, not Alex’s. There are no ties between them. 

 

But Alex looks into Astra’s eyes, at that look of understanding, and something inside her clicks. 

 

She realises, in that moment, that her life has been irrevocably changed by this woman’s appearance. She is not sure what to think of that. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

A week later, after Hank has approved Astra’s ‘non-threat’ status (she is a little surprised about how quickly he did it, when he found out who she was, to Kara, and she’s not sure what to think of that), he sends her to Astra’s offices to get some information from her about Non and his forces, who Kara just recently encountered, and something called the Myriad Project. 

 

They all know that is no coincidence that Astra’s company shares the same name. 

 

Hank sends her, rather than Kara, because he knows that Kara could not be impartial, not when she seems happier than ever, with her aunt back, with her ‘little sister’, as she’s taken to calling Tanya, and they have to find out if Astra has anything to do with it. Alex desperately hopes that she does not, for more reason than one. 

 

She is intercepted in the foyer by a short, surprisingly imposing woman with dark hair and dark eyes, who looks at her with something like suspicion. There is something familiar about the way she holds herself, like there is power in her despite her size, and Alex wonders if this woman is also a Kryptonian. She wonders if Astra’s entire enterprise is made up of them. 

 

‘Alexandra Danvers’, the woman says, and the low, slow tenor of her voice reminds Alex of honey, for some inane reason, ‘you have chosen quite a day to drop by’.

 

She has the same lilt, the same unidentifiable accent as Astra, and Alex feels her shoulders straighten, tighten, at the knowledge that she is facing another super powered person. ‘I’m sorry if its a bad time’, she says, and she knows that she doesn’t sound it, ‘but its urgent’. 

 

‘Everything is always urgent with you government people’. The woman shakes her head, and purses her lips. ‘Miss Reyes is busy, Agent Danvers. You will have to come back another time’. 

 

Alex blinks. It hadn’t occurred to her that Astra must have given herself a false last name, despite how obvious it is. Astra Reyes. The name has a nice ring to it. ‘Look, can you just tell her I’m here, Miss…’ she trails off, aware that she doesn’t know this woman’s name. 

 

‘Jana Johnson. And why are you here?’ 

 

Alex grits her teeth. She is about to speak, when Jana tilts her head, and lifts her hand to her ear. ‘Yes, Miss Reyes?’ There is a pause. Jana frowns slightly. ‘Its Alexandra Danvers’. The woman raises her eyebrows, a flash of surprise passing over her expression. The look she shoots Alex is a little calculating, analysing, like she’s heard something that she’s trying to explain. ‘Very well’. 

 

She drops her hand, and jerks her head towards the elevator. ‘She says that you can go up,  _Alex_. Top floor’. 

 

Alex manages to contain her smile. She can’t tell if Jana sounds irritated, or simply curious. She notice the sudden switch to calling her Alex, and suddenly wonders if Astra remembered her insistence on being called that. She doubts it, but it gives her a strange thrill. 

 

Astra’s office reminds her of Cat Grant’s, with its wide, open space and numerous windows. There are less televisions, however, and very few people. It seems removed, somehow, from the rest of the company, and smaller than the other floors. Perhaps this top floor has been built to act as a private floor. The people she can see are moving between doors on the other side of the floor, smaller, more closed off offices. She can hear a classical radio station playing, and as she looks around, she sees that there are numerous pot plants lining the walls, giving colour and life to the floor. There are pictures, too, photos of rolling landscapes and paintings that seem strangely familiar, though she can’t place them. There is a child’s drawing of what looks like a beehive on one wall, just above what looks like a  _save the bees_  poster, and that makes her smile. 

 

She is still grinning when she walks into the open space of Astra’s office. The woman is sitting behind her desk, glasses perched on her nose, but she is looking over the frames at the file in her hands, her brow creased faintly. Her hair is not as tightly pinned as it was the first time they met, and she can see that single white streak that once set her apart from her twin. She is wearing a white shirt with her sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and Alex forces herself not to look at the woman’s forearms, to check whether she looks as strong as Alex knows she is. 

 

  
_Stop_ , she tells herself, in a way that she knows is useless. Astra is just very attractive. She’s going to have to accept it, and move on. Somehow. It would help if Astra didn’t look up at her and smile, bright and blinding, like she is genuinely pleased to see her. 

 

‘Alex’, she says, rising quickly from her seat, ’so you met Jana’. Her sensible pencil skirt leaves very little to the imagination. 

 

_Stop._

‘Is she always so suspicious?’ 

 

Astra laughs, moving out from behind her desk. She starts to pack up her files, and Alex frowns slightly. ‘She is… protective, I believe you could say’.

 

‘She’s from Krypton too, isn’t she?’

 

Astra turns to face her again, that slow, pleased smile curving her lips. She looks impressed, like she did when Alex guessed that she must have come from Fort Rozz. ‘You  _are_ perceptive, aren’t you?’ The woman moves back around the desk, and opens a draw. She retrieves her phone, dumps it in her hand bag, and starts to unroll the sleeves of her shirt. She tilts her head. ‘I’m afraid that I am in a bit of a hurry, but what can I help you with?’

 

Alex blinks. ‘I might have to come back, then. It might take a while’. 

 

‘You want information? About Non and his followers?’ She frowns slightly, and removes her glasses to polish them on her sleeve. ‘Kara told me about her run in with them. I did wonder what he has planned’. 

 

‘Yeah. Anything you can give us would be helpful, but specifically, we want to know about something they called the Myriad Project’. 

 

Astra’s glasses break in half with an audible snap. 

 

‘What did you just say?’ Astra has gone very pale, her eyes wide, and Alex wonders if she is mistaken about seeing a flash of fear pass over her face. She looks incredibly shaken, and Alex half reaches out a hand, as if to support her. But Astra steps back, and leans heavily on the desk. ‘Myriad? Thats… impossible’. 

 

Alex restrains herself from stepping forward, or from asking her if she is alright. She clearly isn’t. ‘You… you can see why I’ve come to you, can’t you? Your company shares the same name’. 

 

Astra lifts a hand and rubs it over her face. Her fingers catch in her hair, and a few curls come lose, falling down to frame her face. ‘I… I would like to tell you that I have nothing to do with it, but I do not want to lie to you, Alex’. 

 

Alex frowns. She keeps her voice light, without a hint of accusation, when she says, ‘its clearly complicated’. 

 

‘You could say that’. Astra sighs heavily. Her shoulders droop, and she looks momentarily exhausted. Then she shakes herself, and straightens. She retrieves her handbag, and dumps the ruined glasses inside. ‘I have to pick up Tanya from her piano lesson, Alex, but if you would care to join me, I would be happy to tell you all about it’. 

 

Alex blinks. ‘Are you sure? With your kid…’ 

 

‘Tanya is very eager to meet Kara’s older sister, I can assure you. She will not be annoyed. On the contrary, I believe it will make her quite happy. As for Myriad… well, she knows that my life was not always as simple as it is now’. 

 

Alex finds herself nodding. ‘Sure’. 

 

‘You may have to lead me out, Alex. I am meant to be practically blind, after all’. 

 

Alex blinks again. Her throat feels tight.  _Calm down, Danvers_ , she thinks, and the voice in her head sounds remarkably, though perhaps not surprisingly, like Hank’s. Alex takes Astra's offered arm, curling her fingers lightly around her elbow, and the tension around Astra’s eyes seems to fade, seems to leak away, and her smile is smooth and genuine. 

 

She keeps her hand on Astra’s arm, as they walk from her office to the elevator, and even though it is not necessary once the doors have closed, she does not take it away. 

 

Alex catches Jana’s eye as they exit the foyer, and the woman’s expression is a mix of surprise and curiosity, but when she shakes her head, she looks almost exasperated. 

 

Alex hopes that look is not directed at her, that her attraction to this woman is not displayed on her face. 

 

(She will find out, much later, that it was not). 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Tanya is… adorable. 

 

She looks around the same age that Kara was when she crashed down from the heavens, but aside from the brightness of her smile, the way her entire face lights up when she sees Astra, that is where the physical similarities end. 

 

She has a fine boned, oval shaped face, framed by a dark cloud of tightly coiled curls, rich dark skin and eyes so bright they seem almost gold. She is  _tiny_ , and when she smiles, her cheeks dimple. 

 

Astra has been all smiles and gleaming eyes around Alex, all bright smiles and loving eyes around Kara, and here, the mask she wore as they walked through her offices vanishes. Astra bends down to meet her immediately, and Tanya steps forward into her arms like she hasn’t seen her mother in days, and Alex thinks,  _oh no_. 

 

Astra stands, and her expression is warm and affectionate, and when she and Tanya look at her, Alex feels something inside her melt. 

 

It is very different, she thinks, from the way she acted around her own mother at that age. 

 

‘Tanya, this is Alex’, Astra says, the words forming around a smile directed solely at her, ‘Kara’s older sister’. 

 

Tanya’s dimples deepen, and she sticks out a hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Alex’. 

 

Alex takes it, unable to stop herself from smiling. ‘Its nice to meet you too, Tanya’. 

 

‘Mom’s told me a lot about you’, the girl says, folding her hands in front of her, and her smile becomes strangely knowing, strangely sly. 

 

Alex glances quickly at Astra, just in time to see the woman’s eyes widen slightly. ‘Oh?’ 

 

Astra clears her throat, and says, ‘Tanya, Alex will be coming home with us today. She requires some information from me’. 

 

Tanya’s smile vanishes, and she frowns so severely that it looks like it hurts. At first Alex wonders if it is a response to her presence, but then Tanya looks up at her mother and says, ‘you’re okay, right? They’re not back are they?’ 

 

Astra’s smile fades, and she rests her hand on Tanya’s head, pressing her thumb between the girl’s brows, as if she wants to smooth that frown away. She is silent for a moment, and Alex remembers that the woman had said that she has never, and will never lie to her daughter. ‘It is nothing I can’t handle, little star. And Alexandra here is very good at her job. She protects people for a living, you know’. 

 

Tanya’s frown seems to lessen, and she glances at Alex again. Her expression turns thoughtful, and she nods slowly. ‘Mom told me that you save people. Like Supergirl. She said that because you’re human, like me, it makes you very brave’. 

 

Alex stares down at Tanya, deliberately avoiding glancing at Astra. ‘Yeah’, she says after a moment, ‘I do’. She swallows, and realises that she is about to do something she might regret. ‘Your Mom isn’t in any danger, Tanya. We’ll keep her safe’. 

 

Tanya steps up closer to Alex, and Alex bends down so that they are at eye level. Tanya stares at her for a long moment, a critical, analysing look in her eyes. Then she smiles, a quick flash of dimples, and says, ‘I believe you. You are the _Brave One_ , after all’. 

 

Alex snorts. She can’t help it. She glances up at Astra, and sees that the woman is covering her face with her hand. She meets Astra’s eyes, and she has seen that look before. Kara gets the same colour in her cheeks when she’s embarrassed, and Alex grins. 

 

She realises then that she might be hopelessly attracted to Astra, but it is definitely not one-sided. 

 

  
_Brave One._ She bites her lip to stop herself from laughing.  _God, Kryptonians are such dorks._  


 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Astra's house is more modest than she expected from the CEO of a company like Myriad Energies. It is not imposing, it does not tower over the residents on either side, and the only thing that catches Alex’s eye is the amount of green in the small front yard. She recalls Astra’s office, and all the pot plants, and remembers Kara telling her about how sparse Krypton was, because it was dying, and wonders if this is Astra’s way of gathering life around her. 

 

There are paintings decorating the walls, shelves stacked with books, vases overflowing with flowers, blues and yellows and pale pinks, pot plants spilling green, and there is a cello propped up in the corner beside a piano. The far wall is made up of three windows, a sliding door that is almost impossible to see, and beyond that, there is so much green, a tree that is heavy with apples, and in another, she can see what looks like a treehouse built high in its branches. The light that spills into the living room is a dappled gold, and as Alex concentrates, she can hear the wind whispering in the leaves, and there are birds singing, a peaceful ambiance that covers the sound of traffic and bustling city life. 

 

It is so peaceful that Alex feels almost thrown. She stops suddenly, and Tanya hurries past her, padding across the wooden floor boards in stockinged feet to disappear to the left, and when Alex leans forward she sees an open staircase, and above it, an open sky light. 

 

Astra bumps into her shoulder at her sudden stop, and Alex sees her frown at her. ‘Are you alright, Alex?’ 

 

Alex shakes herself. ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m fine’. 

 

Astra nods, and gestures for Alex to follow her. ‘Make yourself at home. Would you like a drink?’

 

‘No, no, I’m okay’. 

 

Astra nods. She is twisting her fingers together, a surprising outward display of anxiety, and when she notices Alex looking, she huffs a laugh, and shakes her head. ‘Forgive me, Alex, I… I thought that I’d heard the last of the Myriad Project’. 

 

They sit on the couch, and it occurs to Alex that this is so informal, despite the reason why she is here. Astra takes off her glasses, and dumps them on the coffee table. She pinches the bridge of her nose, and sighs. Alex frowns slightly. ‘You okay?’

 

Astra smiles. ‘I’m fine, Alex. I just…’ She sighs again, and her shoulders droop. It is like a physical weight settles on her shoulders. ‘Myriad’, she says, shaking her head, ‘I named my company after it as a private joke’. 

 

Alex feels her frown deepen. ‘So you do know about it?’

 

Astra’s smile turns wry. She laughs, and it is not an amused sound. ‘I designed it’. 

 

She was not expecting that. She stares at Astra’s face for a long moment, and the look in her eyes is a mix of guilt and regret. ‘You said it was complicated. Tell me about it’. 

 

Astra takes a deep breath, and leans back. ‘I designed it on Krypton. Our planet was dying, and I was… desperate. I made many mistakes, and many bad decisions. Myriad was one of them. It was designed to… subjugate our citizens, honestly, there is no other word. It would take over their minds, and force them all towards one goal. I thought that if everyone actually  _believed_ that Krypton was dying, and listened to me, we could work together to save it’. She shakes her head, and her laugh is a humourless sound. She looks deeply ashamed. ‘It was a foolish thought. Krypton was already doomed’. 

 

Alex wants to reach out and comfort her, and it is a strange desire, because she barely knows Astra, and it is not her place, really. Instead she says, ‘I really can’t judge you, Astra. I have no idea what it is like to be put in that position’. 

 

Astra laughs again. She reaches up, and unpins her hair. It falls in glossy waves about her face, and Alex swallows tightly. It makes Astra look instantly softer, strangely younger, and all the more beautiful. God, she is so screwed. ‘That is not the point, Alexandra’, Astra runs a hand through her hair. ‘I made a mistake, with Myriad. But I did not realise it straight away, not until roughly four years after we arrived here’. 

 

‘You built it here?’ Alex asks, and she is inordinately proud that her voice is completely steady. 

 

‘I began to. This world is much like Krypton. Its people are using up its resources. I made myself believe that I could make up for my failure on Krypton by saving this world. I began to build Myriad again, but I also… recognised that this world was not yet too far gone. That there was hope, and time. Myriad was always a last resort’. 

 

‘So you decided not to use it?’

 

Astra’s expression does soften, then, some of the shame and guilt leaking from her expression. ‘I adopted Tanya. It… changed everything, I suppose you could say, but I was already well on the way to that decision. My companions and I, those of them who remained loyal, went back to Fort Rozz and destroyed every last trace of Myriad’. She laughs again. ‘Or so I thought’. 

 

Alex hadn’t really been aware of how tense she’d been throughout the conversation, but at Astra’s words, she feels herself relax back into the couch. It is a huge relief, to learn that despite Astra’s part in it, she is not responsible for what is happening right now. She breathes out slowly. ‘Do you have any idea how they could have built it again?’

 

Astra snorts. ‘Non was nothing if not stubborn. He must have had help, of course. I cannot give you an accurate answer, unfortunately, but I can call Raj. He has all our old files on it. And if you manage to capture one of Non’s subordinates, not a Kryptonian, mind you, he can see what they know. You’ll have all our support in this, I promise you that’. 

 

Alex smiles. ‘Thats good to know. You were apparently a feared General, once’. 

 

Astra’s smile is genuine, and a little mischievous. It reminds Alex of Kara. ‘ _Apparently_ , is it?’

 

Alex lets her smile widen. ‘You can’t blame me for finding that hard to believe’. 

 

Astra scoffs. ‘You’ve never seen me fight, Alexandra’. 

 

‘Impressive, is it? Even after all these years?’ 

 

Astra quirks an eyebrow, and stares at her. Alex knows that she is smirking, that she is as good as challenging the woman, and god, she’s not even trying to resist this. She is blatantly flirting, and both of them really shouldn’t let this happen. 

 

Then Astra kicks off her heals, pulls her hair back into a quick, messy pony tail, and rolls up her sleeves. She stands, walks around the other side of the couch to an open, carpeted area, and beckons. ‘What is the phrase, Alexandra? Come at me?’

 

Alex stands slowly, and stares. ‘You’re wearing a skirt’.

 

Astra laughs, and this time it is a real one, a rich, low sound that goes right to Alex’s gut. ‘Oh, do you think that gives me a disadvantage?’

 

‘Well…’ Alex stands, moving to stand opposite the woman. She drops her weight down more evenly, and raises her hands. ‘Perhaps it evens things out. What with your super strength, and all’. 

 

Astra’s grin is almost mocking. ‘I’ll go easy on you, Agent Danvers’. 

 

Astra  _does not_ go easy on her. 

 

By the end of it, Alex is flat on her back, and Astra is pressed against her in a way that is really, really distracting. She is breathing hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly, brushing against Astra’s with each quick inhale, and the woman is smirking. Her hair has come loose, and she flicks it over her left shoulder, leaning down very, very close to her. ‘Do you admit defeat, Agent Danvers?’ 

 

Oh, Alex has been defeated in so many ways. Her eyes are drawn to the slender curve of Astra’s neck, to the gleam in her eyes, to her lips, and she becomes aware of other, more important things. The fact that Astra’s skirt definitely didn’t hold up to their match, that there is a long split up the left side that Alex follows with her eyes until she forces herself to look away, and that might be the hardest thing she’s ever done. 

 

The fact that her heart is beating very hard, and that Astra is looking at her lips. 

 

She takes advantage of the woman’s moment of distraction, and flips her, settling on her hips with her fingers wrapped around her wrist, and her hand on her shoulder. She cocks her head, and smirks. ‘What was that, General?’

 

Astra sits upright, and Alex falls off her, sliding to the floor beside her, Astra’s hand on her shoulder, steadying her. Alex tries not to look at the long line of her thigh that her ruined skirt has revealed. That gleam in Astra’s eyes is still there, and she tilts her head slightly, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. ‘You’, she says, ‘are quite impressive, Agent Danvers’.  

 

Alex stares at her for a long, long moment, and then she throws her head back and laughs. She is so far gone, that there is no point even resisting anymore. She gives up, there and then. Whatever happens between them will happen, she is sure of that. She’s not going to be the one to stop it. ‘You’re not too bad yourself, General’. 

 

From the top of the stairs, Tanya watches them, watches the way they sit side by side, smiling at each other, her eyebrows raised in astonishment. 

 

A slow smile curves her lips _._ She doesn’t think she’s ever seen her mother look at anyone in the way she is looking at Alex.

  
_Huh_ , she thinks, her mind already working, already planning,  _this is interesting._  


She’s going to have to get the rest of her space family involved in the plans brewing in her mind. And that means Kara, too. 

 

She knows her mother well enough to know that she will not act on this, first. She’s going to have to do something about that. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Thanksgiving is a disaster, just as Alex knew it would be. 

 

She leaves the dinner with her mother’s accusations and disappointment ringing in her ears, and ignores Kara’s attempts to call her back. 

 

She walks the streets, her hands shoved deep in the pockets of her leather jacket, scowling at anyone who glances at her. She is angry. She is beyond angry. She is  _furious_. 

 

And she is also incredibly hurt. 

 

Why is it, that Kara always gets approval from Eliza, and she always gets disappointment? She doesn’t blame her sister for it, not at all, but she hates that her mother has the ability to make her feel so, so awful with nothing but words, with nothing but a look. 

 

She doesn’t want to go back to the cold and the dark and the loneliness of her own apartment, not on this night, this night that is meant to be about family and love, and right now, feels like bitterness and disappointment. 

 

She walks. She walks until her face feels numb and her feet are sore, and her phone has buzzed so many times in her pocket that she has lost count. She considers going to a bar, just for something to do, in search of more alcohol, to forget the way her mother looked at her, but that feels depressing, right now. 

 

She thinks, suddenly, of the warmth in Astra’s eyes, the welcoming smiles, the dimpled grins from her daughter. She thinks about the affection between them, the way Astra had looked at her lips, that she’d ended their fifth interaction with a soft invitation,  _I hope to see you soon, Alexandra. You are always welcome here_ , and before she really knows what she is doing, she takes the next right, and changes directions. 

 

She finds herself standing outside Astra’s door, with her hands shoved in her pockets and her chin tucked down, and god, what is she doing? This is an intrusion, an intrusion that she should not have presumed would be welcome, but she has already rung the door bell, and fleeing into the night before it can be answered would feel stupid and childish, and her cheeks are burning. 

 

The door opens, and Alex forgets whatever she’d been thinking about. 

 

Astra stands on the threshold, regarding her with clear surprise, but it is the woman’s appearance that has Alex staring. 

 

Astra is wearing an oversized, deep blue sweater that is so huge that it almost reaches her knees. It looks worn and soft, the hem frayed, her thumb sticking through a hole in the over long sleazes, and written across her chest are the words,  _space mom._ Her legs are bare from the thigh down, and Alex follows the long lines of her legs to stare at her bear feet. She blinks, looks up, and becomes aware that Astra’s hair is down, falling about her face in messy curls, the single white streak startling in the light above the door. She looks sleepy and soft and Alex is so caught off guard by this, by this side of the woman that she has never seen before, and never would’ve expected to. 

 

She definitely feels like she’s disturbed the woman. 

 

But then Astra smiles, a soft, welcoming curve of her lovely mouth, and it is like a balm on the raw, jagged edge of the hurts her mother carved into her heart. ‘Alex’, she says, and her voice sounds lower than usual, ‘this is a welcome surprise’. 

 

Alex scuffs her shoe against the stones. ‘Hi’. 

 

Astra’s smile widens. ‘Hello’. She tilts her head, and a faint crease furrows her brow. ‘Is everything alright?’ 

 

‘Yeah, every things fine, I just…’ she trails off, because honestly, she shouldn’t be there, and she feels stupid for acting on a split second impulse. 

 

Astra’s frown deepens. ‘Come in’. 

 

Alex glances up at her. ‘Are you sure?’ 

 

‘Of course’. Astra holds out a hand, and the sleeve of her jumper is so long that only the tips of her fingers are visible. It makes Alex smiles, a little wearily. She takes Astra’s hand, and the woman tugs her over the threshold, and shuts the door behind her. They stand there, suddenly very close together, in the shadows, and Astra doesn’t let go of her hand. ‘Are you sure everything is alright? Aren’t you meant to be having Thanksgiving with your mother, and Kara?’ 

 

Alex’s throat tightens. She shrugs one shoulder. She clears her throat, and says, ‘there was a… my mother and I have our issues, I guess you could say. I just… needed to leave’. 

 

Astra tilts her head. She lifts her other hand, and tucks a strand of Alex’s hair behind her ear, and oh, oh this feels very, very intimate, in the dark with the shadows holding them, with Astra dressed in perhaps nothing more than that sweater, with Alex feeling raw and vulnerable. She swallows, and stares up at Astra’s face. Concern is written in the lines of the woman’s face, and she drops her hand to cover both of Alex’s. ‘We have already eaten, Alex, but we were just watching a film. You are welcome to join us, but otherwise, you are welcome to take the spare room’. 

 

Alex blinks. ‘Are you sure?’ 

 

Astra nods immediately. ‘You are family, Alex. You are…’ she clears her throat, and it seems to Alex that she alters her words. ‘You are always welcome here. I meant that, the last time I said it’. 

 

Alex squeezes Astra’s hands tightly. She feels strangely overwhelmed by this gesture. ‘I… I don’t think I can sleep, just yet’. 

 

Astra inclines her head. ‘Then come. Tanya will be pleased to see you again’. 

 

Alex follows Astra into the living room, and there is Tanya, curled up in the corner of the couch with a blanket draped over her. The cloud of her hair seems even larger, then, and even though she looks sleepy and tired, her eyes light up when she sees Alex. She grins, dimples and all. ‘Welcome, Brave One’, she says, in a deadly serious voice, and her eyes are flashing with amusement. 

 

It makes Alex feel warm and welcome and wanted, with Astra’s hand in her own, and Tanya smiling at her like that. ‘Little star’, she greets, and Tanya laughs. The warmth in her heart swells. 

 

Astra slides under the blanket beside her daughter, tilting onto her side, and Tanya leans back into her. Alex removes her shoes, and starts to move to the other couch, but Tanya says, ‘join us, Alex’, and oh, she couldn’t resist those dimples even if she wanted to. 

 

She sits on the couch beside Astra, resting her elbow on the back of the couch so that she is looking over Astra’s shoulder at the television. Astra shifts backwards slightly, pressing them together, and drapes the blanket over her. Alex can’t really think further than the fact that Astra’s bare legs are pressed against her, and through her jeans, it is a wonderful warmth. But she clears her throat, and says, ‘what are we watching?’

 

‘Lilo and Stitch’, Tanya says, and Alex wonders if she imagines the mix of exasperation and affection in Tanya’s voice. 

 

Alex snorts. She can’t help it. ‘Really?’

 

Astra huffs indignantly. ‘It is a quality film, Alexandra’. 

 

‘Mom cries every time’. 

 

‘Tanya…’ 

 

‘Well’, Alex says, leaning forward a little so that she is leaning into the curve of Astra’s back. She bumps her shoulder. ‘The mighty General, crying over Lilo and Stitch? Definitely something I want to see’. 

 

Astra grumbles. ‘Don’t make me regret inviting you to stay, Alexandra’. 

 

As it turns out, Alex does not get to see Astra cry, because she falls asleep. She probably should’ve seen it coming, because she had quite a bit of alcohol back at Kara’s apartment, and Astra is so warm, and she is so comfortable, and she is powerless to resist when her eyes start to droop closed. She falls asleep with her face pressed against Astra’s shoulder, breathing in the woman’s floral shampoo, and the softer scent of rain and freshly turned earth that seems to hang around her, perhaps impeded in the soft, worn, ridiculously endearing jumper. 

 

She wakes up to the sensation of being lifted, and when she stirs, she realises that Astra is  _carrying_ her, her head tucked against the woman’s shoulder, and Astra’s arms are strong and soft and secure, and she really should be more embarrassed than she is, but she is so warm and sleepy, and all she manages is a mumble, ‘I can walk, Astra’. 

 

Astra’s chuckle seems to vibrate through Alex’s very being. ‘Do you want to test that theory?’ 

 

Alex sighs heavily. ‘No’. She smiles against Astra’s jumper. ‘Did you cry?’ 

 

‘Tanya was right, Alexandra. I always cry during that film’. 

 

Alex’s heart swells. ‘You softy’. 

 

‘Careful, Alex. It would be a shame if I dropped you’. 

 

‘You wouldn’t’. 

 

Astra chuckles again. ‘No, I would not’. 

 

Alex is nevertheless more awake by the time Astra lays her down in the spare room, and she blinks owlishly at the woman. Astra is looking at her with that soft, warm affectionate look that Alex wonders if she’ll ever get used to. God, she barely knows this woman, they’ve seen each other five different times, sessions that were meant to be about gathering information to take down Myriad and yet somehow always ended up being about something else, and yet she feels like she already knows her intimately. ‘We should get to know each other better’, she says, before she’s really realised what she’s saying, ‘over lunch. When I’m not asking you for information or hiding from my mother’. 

 

Astra smiles softly, and nods. ‘I would like that’. Then she frowns. ‘I… I cannot presume to know what is happening between you and your mother, Alex. But if you ever need… somewhere to go, consider this your home’. 

 

Alex stares at her, and she finds that she  _wants_ to tell Astra what happened, after this kindness that the woman had no obligation to show her. She sits upright slowly, and rubs a hand over her face. ‘My mother… has never approved of my decisions. I have spent my life protecting Kara, and it has never been enough. Nothing I have ever done has been enough. And she thinks that I should have stopped Kara from coming out as Supergirl and I -’ she stops suddenly, because her throat feels tight, and there is a strange expression on Astra’s face. ’Sorry, I should’t -’  

 

‘I was the spare twin, you know’, Astra says suddenly, and there is an old, old hurt in her eyes. ‘We were an anomaly, on Krypton. And my parents had a perfect life planned out for one of us, and so they… chose. Nothing I ever did after that mattered. Nothing I ever did was enough. My very  _existence_  was a disappointment’. She smiles at Alex, a strained, sympathetic thing. ‘I can relate. Do not apologise for being unable to contain how you feel, Alex. Keeping it all in is only harmful to ourselves, in the end’. 

 

Alex reaches out, and takes Astra’s hand. She pulls her closer, and wraps her arms loosely around the woman. Astra sighs heavily against her. ‘Thank you, Astra’. 

 

‘You are most welcome, Brave One’. 

 

When Astra pulls away from her, Alex glances down at her sweater, and laughs. She can’t help it. ‘Space mom?’ she asks, and it is mainly in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere. 

 

Astra’s smile is easy and warm. She shakes her head. ‘This was a… gift. Tanya gave it to me a year after I adopted her. Luther helped her make it’. 

 

Alex chuckles. But the sound dies in her throat when Astra leans forward, and without hesitating, presses a kiss to her cheek. ‘Sleep, Alex. We will have plenty of time to talk tomorrow’. 

 

Oh, it would be so easy to turn her head and just kiss Astra, properly. But she waits a moment too long, and then Astra is standing, and moving away from her. Alex sighs heavily. ‘Good night, Astra. And thank you, again’. 

 

‘Good night, Alex’. 

 

Alex is left with the impression of warm lips against her cheek, and the affection in Astra’s eyes, the softness of her smile. She decides that one day soon, she’ll actually kiss the woman. 

 

Before she falls asleep, Alex retrieves her phone, and groans at the number of missed calls from Kara, the number of worried text messages. Her mother hasn’t contacted her. 

 

The last text from Kara seems calmer than the others, and it simply reads,  _are you safe?_  


Alex feels a prickle of guilt, at the idea that she might have made her sister worry. She replies,  _yeah, I’m safe. I love you._  


Kara’s response is immediate.  _I love you so much._  


Despite the disastrous Thanksgiving dinner, Alex falls asleep feeling warm and content and safe, and loved, and perhaps that is the most surprising turn of events that evening. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Alex wakes up in the morning to a steaming cup of coffee on her bedside table, and a sticky note attached to the handle. There is a phone number at the bottom, and written in an elegant, neat hand are the words:

 

_Good morning, Alex. I hope you slept well._

_I am uncertain if you were serious, last night, when you spoke of lunch. If you were, I have a gap in my schedule today around midday, if you would care to join me._

_And I meant it. You are always welcome here._

 

Alex is late to work, but it is worth it, somehow, for how that note made her feel. She meets Astra for lunch, and is far sorrier than she should be when she has to return to work, but she gets a passing kiss on the cheek, and god, she almost blushes like a teenager with a crush. They keep meeting for lunch, whenever they can, and honestly, it is the highlight of her day. It is strange, to look forward to something so mundane so eagerly, but it is something she’s never done before. 

 

A week later, after forcing herself to return to the cold loneliness of her apartment, which seems all the worse now, after that night with Tanya and Astra, she gives up. 

 

She turns up at Astra’s door, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket, and smiles sheepishly, uncertainly, at Astra when she answers the door. Astra welcomes her with a quick squeeze of her shoulder, and a smile so warm and welcoming that all her doubts float away. 

 

She wakes up the next day to another cup of coffee, perfectly heated, and a key of her own. 

 

She wonders if Astra knows how much that, this simple offer of sanctuary and company, means to her. 

 

She comes back that night.

 

And the next. 

 

Astra becomes a part of her life with such ease that the transition doesn’t disturb her days at all. 

 

And without really realising it, Astra’s house, with its open spaces and wide windows and overflowing plant pots, becomes home. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who else forgot this existed because i sure did

Alex returns home one evening  to find Jana waiting inside the doorway. She stops still, startled, having nearly walked straight into her. ‘Err…. hi?’

 

Jana cocks an eyebrow. ‘Alexandra’. 

 

‘Its -’

 

‘Alex, yes, I know’. The shorter woman tilts her head. ‘You are back early’. 

 

Alex becomes aware of the soft, melodious sounds coming from the living room. She smiles, recognising the smooth pattern of Tanya’s playing. ‘Tanya’s home?’

 

Jana’s mouth thins. ‘Yes. That is why I’m here’. 

 

Alex frowns. She doesn’t know Jana very well. She knows that Astra trusts her without question, just as she trusts Raj and Luther. But she is good at reading people, and despite the woman’s hard expression, she recognises what looks like concern in Jana’s eyes. She frowns. ‘Is something wrong?’

 

A muscle jumps in Jana’s jaw. She takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly. ‘We love Tanya, Alex. She is a part of our family. She is a gift. You are now, undeniably, a part of that family, too’.

 

Alex blinks. She shoves her hands into her pockets, and shrugs, her shoulders drawn up tight. She feels strangely tense at this confrontation. ‘I feel like there’s a catch’. 

 

Jana’s jaw tightens again. ‘Tanya and her best friend are being bullied, Alex. She is… strangely like you, in fact. She is attempting to defend them both from assailants twice her size’. 

 

Anger rips through Alex so suddenly that she jerks, her hands curling into fists, and she grits her teeth. She takes several deep, slow breaths. It is the same feeling she used to experience as a child, defending Kara from bullies who she would have ripped apart, rather than let them touch her sister. ‘Does Astra know?’

 

‘No. We aren’t even supposed to know. We only know because of Raj. But that is… she doesn’t want to tell us what is going on. Its an invasion, Alex. It is not our… we do not feel comfortable bringing this to Astra, not without her permission’.

 

‘I could talk to her’. 

 

To her surprise, Jana smiles. ‘I was hoping you’d say that’. 

 

Before Alex quite knows whats happening, Jana has marched past her, taken her by the shoulders, pushed her over the threshold, and shut the door behind her. She’s used to Kara’s super speed, and to Astra’s, in a way, though the woman still startles her sometimes. She’s never seen Jana use her powers before. 

 

She finds Tanya sitting at the piano. She’s stopped playing, and her legs are crossed. She glances at Alex as she approaches, and her jaw tightens. Alex sits down beside her on the chair, and says, ‘did you always want to play the piano?’

 

Tanya nods slowly. ‘Yeah. Mom always played classical music, when I was growing up. She still does, sometimes. It makes it easier for her to… move past things, when the memories get difficult’. 

 

Alex frowns. She puts her arm around Tanya’s shoulders, and the girl leans into her with a heavy sigh. She wonders if Tanya is talking about Fort Rozz. She wonders, as she often has before, how much Tanya really knows about her mother’s life, before the adoption. She wonders if the girl knows about Alura. She reaches down, and takes Tanya’s hands in hers. Tanya’s knuckles are bruised. Alex swallows down her anger, and takes a deep breath. ‘You know, I used to defend Kara from bullies when we were kids’. 

 

Tanya glances up at her, her eyebrows raised. She smiles, and Alex is relieved to feel some of the tension drain from the girl’s shoulders. ‘That doesn’t surprise me’. 

 

Alex stares at her for a moment. Then she takes a deep breath, and says, ‘show me how you make a fist’. 

 

‘Why?’ 

 

‘No one could’ve convinced me to stop fighting for Kara’. She smiles as Tanya’s eyes widen, ‘so I’m not going to tell you to stop’.

 

Tanya sits up straighter, her smile widening, and the cloud hanging over her seems to lift. ‘You’re going to teach me how to fight?’ 

 

Astra is probably going to kill her for this. Jana probably will too. She doubts that this is what the woman meant when she wanted Alex to help. 

 

But she takes a deep breath, and nods. ‘Yep. Now, show me how you make a fist’. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Astra comes home much later than she wished, eager to see her daughter, eager to see if Alex is there, again, just like she always has been. 

 

Alex appears to have moved in, without either of them really noticing (that is a lie, Astra noticed, but she hasn’t said anything. She doesn’t want to scare the woman away). Sometimes Astra comes home to find her there, just sitting on the couch, listening to Tanya talk about her day. The sight always makes her smile, always has warmth blooming in her chest, and that is a dangerous thought. 

 

Sometimes, there will be a knock at the door, and Astra will open it to find Alex standing there, looking a bit sheepish, a bit hesitant, as if she isn’t sure, even now, that Astra’s open invitation was genuine. Astra always does her best to make the woman feel as welcome as possible, and by the end of it, there is a lightness in Alex’s voice that is never there when she first arrives. It makes her feel strangely proud of herself. 

 

She comes home on that day to a very strange sight. 

 

The couches have been pushed aside, and the coffee table has been moved, creating a huge open space in the middle of her living room, and Alex and Tanya are standing there, with their hands raised. 

 

She pauses in the archway, and hangs back to watch, curious to see what on Earth this strange woman is doing with her daughter. 

 

Alex takes a step forward, and jabs at Tanya with her fist, and Tanya ducks, spins, and hits Alex in the side. Alex grabs her side and wheezes. ‘Oh, you got me’, she says, and she’s laughing. 

 

Tanya pouts. ‘Alex, take this seriously’. 

 

_ Oh,  _ Astra thinks,  _ oh no _ . 

 

Alex straightens, her expression turning deadly serious. ‘As you command, little star’. She drops down, and gestures. ‘Alright, so, let’s go over it again. Most of your opponents are going to be much bigger than you, like me, right? So what do you do?’

 

‘Use their size against them’. 

 

‘Right. They’ll get tired a lot more quickly than you. And you know where to hit, right?’

 

‘The nose, the groin, the stomach’. 

 

Alex looks very proud. ‘Good. Shall we try?’

 

‘Come at me, Brave One’. 

 

Alex snorts, and Tanya takes the opportunity to lunge, to tackle Alex around the waist, and as Alex falls, knocked off balance, she grabs Tanya and pulls her down with her. Tanya squeals once, and then sits up, and starts to tickle Alex, and Astra has been on the receiving end of that before. Alex is doomed. 

 

Astra watches Alex rolling around on the floor, gasping and begging for mercy as Tanya tickles her viciously, and realises there and then, that she is so hopelessly in love with this woman that it is laughable. 

 

There  _ is _ a voice laughing at her, at the back of her mind, a soft, soothing, affectionate laugh, and Astra realises that it is Alura’s laugh. She is struck by a memory, of her sister, of Kara, years and years ago, when Kara had been born, and Astra had cried. 

 

_ Oh sister _ , Alura had laughed, her eyes shining with love and affection,  _ you are such a softie.  _

 

_ I am not, Alura.  _

 

But oh, Alura was right. She is a softie. 

 

She watches them, as they roll about on the floor, filling the quiet house with laughter and helpless cries for mercy, and thinks that Alura would like Alex. 

 

The thought makes her heart ache in a wonderful way. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Of all the things that have become normal for her since she met Astra, waiting to pick Tanya up from school is definitely one of the things Alex never imagined for herself.  

 

Children were just never something she thought about, not in relation to herself. Her mother would probably love grandchildren from her, but considering her job, her sexuality, and lack of success in romantic entanglements, kids were never really something she saw in her future. It didn’t bother her, and yet, she can’t deny that she likes the warmth that settles in her chest when Tanya catches sight of her standing at the fence, and beams at her. 

 

Tanya waves goodbye to Carter, and hurries over to hug her tightly around the waist, and Alex ruffles her hair with a smile. ‘Okay day?’ 

 

Tanya shrugs, letting Alex take her back pack from her, and shoves her hands in her pockets. Alex blinks, a little startled to recognise her own posture in the way the girl holds herself. ‘Eh. Things can be a bit boring when your mother came from a much more advanced culture’.

 

Alex snorts. ‘You’re twelve. Exactly how much has she taught you to render school boring?’

 

Tanya grins, dimples and all, and says, ‘that’s a secret’. 

 

Alex’s phone buzzes in her pocket, and she sighs when she sees J’onn’s caller ID. She squeezes Tanya’s shoulder, and lifts her phone to her ear. ‘Sir?’ 

 

_ ‘Where are you now, Agent Danvers?’  _

 

Alex frowns, her fingers tightening automatically on Tanya’s shoulder. J’onn's voice is tight, a sign of concern and stress, and there is worry prickling at the back of her neck. ‘I’m just picking Tanya up from school, why -’ 

 

_ ‘Supergirl and Astra are fighting Non’s soldiers, but listen, one of them revealed that they need Astra to fix the last stage of the Myriad Project, because they can’t get it to work and -’ _

 

‘Is she safe?’ Alex asks, a stab of fear shooting through her, because she knows that if Astra isn’t, if they capture her, she’d rather die than reveal those secrets.

 

_ ‘They’re handling it, Alex, and there is back up on the way but listen, they know about -’   _

 

‘Tanya’, the name rips from her throat before she’s really processed her thoughts, before her mind gets further than Astra, _ protect, vulnerability _ , and she’d known, instinctively, what J’onn was about to say.

 

She glances down at Tanya to see that the girl is looking up at her, frowning in concern, and fear pools in her stomach. ‘Is back up on the way?’ 

 

_ ‘Yes, but -’  _

 

Someone screams. 

 

Alex looks up quickly, and swears violently when she sees the group of aliens landing in the school grounds, a variation of humanoid to grotesque, and Alex already knows she can’t take on that many with just her handgun and a child to protect. 

 

The screams start up, and Alex shoves her phone in her back pocket, grabs Tanya’s hand, and sprints towards the nearest building, practically dragging the girl along with her, and all she can think about is how small Tanya’s hand is, and little chance the girl stands against those aliens. 

 

‘Alex!’ Tanya shouts, running with her but tugging at her hand as they burst through the doors and flee down the hallway. ‘What are you doing?!’ 

 

A roar sounds behind them, and Alex turns down another hall way, bursts into a deserted classroom, and drops to her knees in front of Tanya. She takes Tanya’s face in her hands, and forces the tension from her voice. ‘Tanya, listen to me. These people, these aliens, they’re here for  _ you _ ’. 

 

Tanya’s eyes go very wide, and she curls her hands around Alex’s wrists, and Alex tries not to think about how the girl is shaking. ‘Are these people going to get hurt?’

 

Alex’s mouth twitches, because of course,  _ of course _ , Tanya would think of others first. It seems to be a family trait. ‘No, not if I can help it. But I need you to get to safety, okay? Is there another exit out of here?'

 

Tanya nods. ‘There’s one in the gym, at the end of the hallway’. 

 

‘I need you to go through there, okay? J’onn said backup was on the way. You just… you need to run, until someone comes to get you. Get to a police station if you can’. 

 

Tanya’s hands tighten around her wrists, her teeth digging into her bottom lip, and Alex hates seeing her so afraid. ‘What about you?’ 

 

‘I’m going to make sure they don’t get to you’. Alex tries to smile, tries to be reassuring. ‘I’m going to do my job’. Tanya’s lip trembles, and Alex presses their foreheads together. ‘I need you to be brave, Tanya. Can you do that?’ 

 

Tanya takes a slow, deep breath, and straightens. Her jaw clenches, and she nods. ‘Okay, I can do that’. She flings herself forward, wrapping her arms around Alex’s neck and squeezing tightly. ‘Be careful, Brave One’. 

 

Alex wants to laugh, but she doesn’t, because she has to be an agent here, she has to put up her defences so that she can focus solely on delaying these aliens, otherwise she won’t be able to take them all on. She can’t think about her personal stake in this, however hard, however impossible that might be. She pulls away, and moves to check the hallway, and when she finds it all clear, and turns, grips Tanya’s shoulder, and presses a quick kiss to her forehead. ‘Go, little star. Be safe’. 

 

Tanya runs. 

 

Alex moves down the hallway back the way they came, draws and loads her gun, and takes a deep breath. All she has to do is hold them off. 

 

Still, when one of the humanoid aliens rounds the corner, Alex takes a great deal of pleasure in driving her fist into its face hard enough to knock loose some teeth. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

_ I’ve had worse than this _ , Alex reminds herself, as the doctors back at the DEO fuss over her, but honestly, it has been a while since she’s been in this much pain. Thank god for painkillers. 

 

She has three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder that hurts like hell, even after it’s been set back in place, a sprained ankle and a twisted wrist, and the rest of her is covered in bruises and scrapes, and she’s going to suffer for it tomorrow. 

 

Tanya absolutely refuses to leave her side. Kara leaves, reluctantly, after clinging to Alex like she was afraid of letting her go, to go and check the damage back at the school, to inform Cat that Carter was not caught in the crossfire, to hunt down those aliens, to call her aunt and tell her about what went down (Alex thinks it's a good thing that Astra had taken off once she split from Kara, hunting down Non, before she learnt about the attempt to take Tanya, because she doesn’t doubt that Non wouldn’t have survived that encounter if Astra had that information to fuel her), and Tanya stays by Alex’s side, stubborn and unmoving, and she looks so much like Astra, like Kara, that it is uncanny.

 

She does not speak, however, until Astra arrives, and Tanya’s expression floods with relief. ‘Mom!’

 

Astra looks wild, her jaw fixed and her eyes wide, fear and concern turning her mouth down, but she sees Tanya, and she looks so immensely relieved that Alex wonders if she is going to cry. 

 

Tanya stretches out her arms and Astra drops down, wrapping her arms around her daughter and pressing her face against her chest, and Tanya clings to her, arms wrapped around her head, and Astra rocks them back and forth, her hands wound tightly in Tanya’s shirt. Alex smiles, and then winces as it pulls at her split lip. Nevertheless, her heart feels warm and full, and despite her aches and bruises and broken bones, it feels worth it. 

 

Astra pulls back, presses kisses to Tanya’s face, her forehead, her cheeks, and then grasps her hands and peppers kisses to her knuckles. Tanya giggles, and Astra’s expression splits in a wide grin. There are tears gleaming in her eyes, and Tanya reaches down and cups her mother’s face. ‘I’m okay, Mom’, she says, and she almost sounds like she’s laughing. ‘I’m okay. Alex saved me’. 

 

Astra is on her feet and across the room before Alex has really processed that she’s begun to move, and before she knows it, the woman has wrapped her in a loose embrace, her fingers sliding into her hair, cupping the back of her head, and her other hand presses against her back, a light, feather like touch, as if Astra is afraid of hurting her. ‘Thank you’, she breathes, her lips brushing against Alex’s ear, ‘thank you, thank you,  _ thank you,  _ Alex, thank you, I -’ 

 

‘It’s okay, Astra’. Alex presses her uninjured hand against Alex’s back, and smiles against the woman’s shoulder, ‘it was no trouble’. 

 

Astra pulls away immediately, frowning severely at her. Her hand stays pressed against the back of Alex’s head, but her other moves, brushing lightly over her ribs, her shoulder, mapping the places that she was injured. ‘No trouble? Really, Alexandra? Just how many bones have you broken?’ 

 

‘She broke her ribs, Mom’. 

 

Alex shoots Tanya a look, but the girl is also frowning, and she looks scarily similar to Astra then, despite the fact that they are not related by blood. Astra’s frown deepens, and Alex lifts her uninjured hand to rest it on Astra’s forearm. ‘Really, I’m fine. Okay, well… not fine, but I will be. The rest is just… bruising’. 

 

‘She dislocated her shoulder too’. 

 

Alex bites her bottom lip, watching the way Astra’s eyes darken, barely restrained anger hanging around her like a physical tension. It is not directed at her, that much is obvious, but Alex decides that she really wouldn’t want to be in Non’s position right now. ‘You, Alexandra, are far too brave for your own good, sometimes’. 

 

Alex shrugs her uninjured shoulder. ‘Maybe. But it was worth it. I couldn’t let them take Tanya’. 

 

Astra’s frown smooths away, and she sighs heavily. ‘I will not pretend that I am not incredibly thankful that she had you to protect her. But you could have died. That would not have been acceptable either’. 

 

Alex opens her mouth to speak, when Tanya cuts across her. ‘Mom, do you remember how when I was little, you used to ‘kiss my hurts better’?’ 

 

Astra blinks, and glances down at her daughter. ‘Of course. I still do’. 

 

‘Well maybe Alex will feel better if you do that for her’. 

 

Alex’s throat goes very dry and she thinks,  _ Tanya you little -,  _ but then Astra looks back at her, and tilts her head, as if she is honestly considering Tanya’s words. Her eyes soften, and her mouth quirks, and Alex realises that Astra is going to listen to her daughter. 

 

Astra leans forward, and presses her lips to Alex’s forehead, to the tender spot just above her eyebrow. She moves down, peppering gentle, feather like kisses to her cheekbones, to her jaw, and as she moves lower, her lips brushing over the bruises wrapping around Alex’s neck, Alex feels heat rush to her cheeks, pooling low in her belly, and she really should stop her, because Tanya is _right_ _there_. 

 

But she glances to her right, and sees that no, Tanya is not there. The girl appears to have fled, to give them space, and Alex bites her lip to to stop herself from smiling, making a mental note to thank the girl later, because the press of Astra’s lips to her neck, to her collarbone, however chaste and restrained, feels so good that it makes her shiver. 

 

Astra kneels down between Alex’s legs, curls her arms around her back gently, and presses her lips to Alex’s ribs, a press of warmth that she can feel even through the fabric, and Alex curls her hands around the edge of the cot to stop herself from resting them in Astra’s hair, because god, she is at work, but the sight of Astra kneeling between her legs like that does wonderful things to her insides.  

 

Astra stands, and reaches down to uncurl her fingers. She lifts Alex’s hands to her lips, and kisses the bruised, bloodied knuckles, and her lips are curved in a soft, reverent smile, and Alex realises that she is undeniably, irrevocably in love with this woman. 

 

Astra reaches up, and cups Alex’s jaw gently, so lightly that Alex can barely feel the pressure, and runs her thumb over her split lip. ‘Better?’

 

Alex wonders whether she should even try speaking, because she feels like all that might come out is garbled words. But she clears her throat, and croaks, ‘better’. 

 

Astra stares at her for a long, long time, and Alex stares back, at the affection and reverence in the woman’s eyes, and wonders if Astra is in love with her, too. Then Astra leans forward, and kisses her. Her lips brush over her split lip, and then move away, as if that is it, as if that is all she feels like she can risk, but Alex reaches up and grasps at the back of Astra’s head, and pulls her closer. She opens herself up to Astra, and if her lip pulls and pains her, it is worth it, it is worth it for the press of Astra’s mouth on her own, properly, a pressure and heat that Alex has been imagining, has been craving, for so long that she feels like her heart is singing, now that she finally has it. 

 

Astra is the first to pull away, but she doesn’t move back. Instead, she rests her forehead against Alex’s, and sighs heavily. ‘I have wanted to do that for a long time’.

 

Alex chuckles. ‘Well, I should thank Tanya for giving you that push’. She kisses Astra again, just because she can, because she is hurt and in pain, but there is warmth and safety in Astra’s embrace. ‘Or Non’s soldiers, however you want to put it’. 

 

Astra snorts. ‘I’ll be sure to deliver that thanks before I destroy them, Alexandra’. 

 

Alex lets herself laugh fully, even though it hurts her. ‘That's something I definitely want to see’. She shakes her head slightly. ‘How long would you’ve waited?’

 

‘There was nothing stopping you, Alexandra. You are the bravest of us both, after all’. 

 

‘Deflecting is a poor tactic, General’. 

 

‘Would kissing you again be a better one?’ 

 

Alex laughs again, and it hurts, but she doesn’t care. ‘You are such a useless alien, you know that?’

 

‘As long as I am your useless alien, Brave One, there are worse things’. 

 

Alex laughs, and lets Astra kiss her again, and despite her injuries, her broken bones and painful bruises, she thinks that this pain was definitely worth it. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Alex wakes late one night to Tanya shaking her shoulder, soft but persistent. ‘Hmm?’ she mumbles, turning her face against the pillow and hunching her shoulders. ‘Wha?’

 

‘Alex’, Tanya shakes her more insistently, ‘wake up’. 

 

Alex peers up at her, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to clear her vision. ‘Tanya? What’s wrong?’ 

 

Tanya looks half asleep herself, her hair expanding in a cloud her head, her eyes half closed and glazed with exhaustion, and she murmurs, ‘can you hear that?’ 

 

Alex sits up, tilting her head and trying to concentrate through the haze of sleep still lingering behind her eyes. It takes her a moment to concentrate, but there, just on the edge of her hearing, is music. Soft, rich. Strings. 

 

She frowns slightly, and nods. ‘Yeah. What is it?’ 

 

‘Mom’. Tanya lies down, curling up against the warm sheets in her place, and Alex draws the covers up to her shoulder automatically. ‘She’s playing’. 

 

Despite the way Tanya’s eyes droop closed almost immediately, Alex recognises concern in the girl’s voice. She rubs at her shoulder, and lowers her voice slightly. ‘Is that a problem?’ 

 

‘Mmm… no… it’s just… she only plays that song when she’s sad’. 

 

Alex blinks, and frowns slightly, concern rising in her throat. She leans down to kiss Tanya’s temple gently, and says softly, ‘I’ll go check on her’. 

 

Tanya makes a soft, contented noise, and curls up in a ball under the covers. ‘Thank you’. 

 

Alex smiles, slides from the bed, and tucks the covers around the girl. Tanya looks tiny like that, curled up with her hair spreading over the pillow, and Alex sits there for a moment, perched on the edge of the bed, stroking the girl’s forehead until her breathing evens out, and the faint crease between her brows smoothes away. 

 

Tanya looks tired, in sleep, and Alex knows that she hasn’t been sleeping very well since the incident with Non’s henchmen. Alex has woken up more than once to find both Tanya and Astra curled up in her bed, and from the way Astra grips her hand in the dark, Alex knows that Tanya isn’t the only person she’s afraid of losing, now. 

 

Alex sighs heavily, grabbing the blanket folded at the end of the bed to drape it around her shoulders, foregoing attempting to find her pants in the dark, and slips quietly from the room. 

 

She pads down the stairs, treading lightly on her toes, listening to the music grow louder, down again, past the living room and into the den, where the fire crackles in the hearth. Astra is floating in the air just within the circle of light, her legs crossed like she’s meditating, her cello resting against her shins, and Alex pauses on the last step to watch her, staring at her face. She’s wearing that overlarge  _ space mom _ jumper Alex first saw when things shifted between them, and it’s slipped down her shoulder, rolled up to her elbows, and her bare skin is tinged gold in the firelight.

 

Astra seems entirely lost in her own world, her head tilted down slightly towards her instrument, her eyes closed, and Alex finds herself mesmerized by the way she looks, by the way her arms move, the tendons in her forearms standing out as she plays, the valleys of her knuckles deepened by the flickering light, the grace with which her fingers move up and down the neck of her cello, the way she sways slightly, like the music is part of her. 

 

Alex moves forward quietly, and sits down on the carpet close to the fire, and wraps the blanket more tightly around her, propping her chin on her knees. The heat of the fire warms the back of her neck, and her eyes droop closed. 

 

Alex has never really listened to classical music before, and she doesn’t recognise the piece, but she thinks it’s beautiful. The music swells, seemingly amplified by the natural acoustics of the room, mellow and full, a deep tenor that runs in vibrations along her skin and sends a shiver down her spine. 

 

It’s beautiful, and yet there is something… melancholy about it.  

 

When the echoes of the last warm notes fade away, Alex opens her eyes to look up at Astra, and what she wants to say dies in her throat. 

 

Astra is staring into space, her bow hanging loosely from her fingers, her temple resting against pegs, and there are tears glittering in her eyes. 

 

Alex stands quickly, letting the blanket slip from her shoulders, and moves forward slowly to pry the cello from Astra’s grip. The woman doesn’t resist, and Alex carefully places the instrument on its side by the couch, balancing the bow on the body, before she turns back, moving forward to gently place her hands on Astra’s hips, and push her down. Again, Astra doesn’t resist, allowing Alex to push her down to sit on the floor, and Astra wraps her arms around her knees, and stares into the fire. The huge jumper slips down her thighs to settle at her hips, and Alex tears her gaze up to the woman’s face before she can look down. 

 

Astra’s mouth is turned down, and Alex wants to take the woman in her arms and hold her, because the gleam in her eyes is far too bright. She shifts closer until their arms are pressed together, aligned at the hips, and lets one of her legs shift between Astra’s. She ignores how smooth Astra’s skin is as their legs slide together, and instead, rests her hand on her elbow. Astra tears her gaze away from the fire to look at her, and Alex leans forward to press their foreheads together. 

 

Astra sighs heavily, and some of the tension seems to drain from her. She leans in, tilting her head slightly to press a quick kiss to Alex’s cheek. She doesn’t say anything, however, which is very unlike her, and so Alex pulls back slightly to catch her eye. ‘Are you okay?’ 

 

‘I… I have been reminiscing. All this…’ Astra lifts her hand and spreads her fingers wide, before dropping it back onto her knee. The corner of her mouth quirks, but somehow it looks more like a grimace than anything. ‘The fear of impending loss. It tends to… dredge things up’. 

 

Alex covers Astra’s hand with her own, and wonders what to do. She’s never seen this particular heaviness in Astra’s eyes before, the way her shoulders curve in slightly. She swallows tightly, because she can guess how Astra feels. The thought of what this war might take from them, what it might do to Kara, has a horrible sensation twisting Alex’s heart. It makes her want to scream and rage, but there is no where to direct it, yet. ‘I don’t know a lot about classical music, but that… I didn’t recognise it’. 

 

Astra’s smile softens, just slightly. She leans against Alex more heavily, and Alex takes it as a good sign. ‘You wouldn’t have. I… I wrote it’. 

 

Alex almost laughs, because  _ of course  _ Astra can write her own music. But she doesn’t, because she recalls the way Astra’s jaw was set as she played, the pinch at the corners of her eyes, and she remembers how… melancholy the piece had made her feel. ‘It sounded sad’. 

 

Astra’s laugh is more of a choked gasp than anything, and Alex wraps her arm around the woman before she can think twice about it. ‘It is meant to be. I…’ she licks her lips, and closes her eyes briefly. ‘It is about Alura’. 

 

_ Oh _ . 

 

Astra lifts her hands, and holds them in front of her face. Her mouth twists, and she closes her eyes again. ‘I was… furious at her, at first. Fort Rozz only served to fuel that anger. I might have been able to forgive her betrayal, but failing to save Krypton, when she promised that she would, failing to save Kara… they felt unforgivable, for a long time’. She sighs heavily, and her fingers curl. ‘It was easier to blame Alura than it was to face the fact that I was at fault, too. Perhaps more’. 

 

‘Krypton wasn’t your fault, Astra. I know very little about it, but I know enough to understand that it was… you couldn’t have saved it with the little time you had’. 

 

Astra laughs again, that same choked sound. ‘I know, Alex. I have come to understand that. But it took me a long time. It took my anger at Alura to turn to grief, and rage to guilt, first. Forgiveness is… hard to give, to yourself’. Her knuckles whiten, and her clenched fists tremble, as if she is trying to hold everything in. ‘I do not hate Alura, anymore. I haven’t for a long time. Now I simply… I miss her. It is like an ache, here’, she presses her balled fists against her chest, and her shoulders curve inwards as she does, like she wants to collapse into herself. ‘It is a constant, even if I am not aware of it, all the time. But there are always reminders. When we were children, before… things changed, and our lives became rigid and fixed, Alura used to dream of music. The day that Tanya told me she wanted to learn the piano was… wonderful, and yet painful. I catch myself wondering, far too often, what she would think of this life. Of the things I have done, on Earth. She would love Tanya’. She opens her eyes suddenly, and turns to look at Alex. She lifts one of her hands, and uncurls her fingers, resting them lightly on Alex’s cheek. Her expression is wistful, but almost reverent, too. ‘She’d love you, too’. 

 

Alex reaches up, and entwines their fingers together against her cheek. She tries to ground Astra, as best she can. ‘She’d be proud of you, you know. You’re working to save this world, in the best way you can’. 

 

Astra’s smile is watery, and she smooths her thumb over Alex’s cheekbone. ‘I hope so, Brave One’. 

 

Alex kisses Astra, cupping the back of her head, her fingers intertwined in her silky hair, and Astra’s lips part beneath her own, and the kiss suddenly becomes a lot more heated than Alex originally intended it to be. 

 

She shifts forward on her knees, sliding her other hand around Astra’s back, and she becomes aware, as her finger press and slide against the soft, worn jumper, that Astra definitely isn’t wearing a bra. The heat that sparks low in her gut feels a little dangerous, a little out of place, but then Astra’s tongue slides against her own, and she thinks that maybe this is exactly what Astra wants, maybe it is exactly what she needs. 

 

Astra does not resist, when Alex presses her down against the floor, and Alex feels very aware of everything in this moment, of every sensation, of the soft carpet fibres brushing against her knuckles as she withdraws her hand from behind Astra’s back, aware, suddenly, of exactly how smooth Astra’s bare legs are as they shift and slide against her own, aware, abruptly, of the heat of the woman’s body, as she settles over her hips, supporting herself with one hand, aware, acutely, of how hard her heart is beating. 

 

If this is how Kryptonians feel all the time, it’s no wonder they are sometimes overwhelmed. 

 

The heat of the fire on her neck is a burn, now, rather than a warm comfort, and the friction of her tank top against her stomach as she lets her weight drop down onto Astra is strangely irritating. She fits herself between Astra’s legs, and it occurs to her that she’ll never be able to look at Astra in this once so endearing, innocent jumper the same way again, when she feels the heat of her against her thigh. 

 

She breaks away from the kiss because she desperately needs to breathe, and her lips feel swollen and a little bruised, her skin feels hot, and she becomes aware that she is breathing very heavily. So is Astra, however, the woman looks just as affected as Alex feels, her cheeks are flushed and her lips are parted, and with each shallow inhale, her chest brushes up against Alex, and the friction of her tank top has graduated from irritating to almost unbearable. 

 

Astra looks unfairly beautiful, then, with her dark hair spread out across the carpet, with the orange firelight highlighting streaks of gold in her curls, caressing the high point of her left cheekbone, with her eyes gleaming with something that is definitely not regret. Alex thinks that it would be so, so easy to ruin her, she  _ wants  _ to ruin her, but she pushes herself up slightly, so that there is a fraction of space between their torsos, and says, ‘are you sure you want this, right now?’ because she remembers that moments ago, Astra was on the verge of tears, and while she thinks that this is what Astra might need, and certainly wants, she doesn’t want to take advantage of the woman’s vulnerability. 

 

Astra smiles, and it is a soft, tender thing. She reaches up and grasps the back of Alex’s neck, and pulls her down. Alex lets the woman kiss her, but she doesn’t move to lower herself down until Astra breaks the kiss, and says, ‘I’m sure, Alex’. 

 

Alex tilts her head then, and kisses Astra deeply. ‘Okay’, she murmurs against her mouth, a word that might be lost, that Astra might not hear, but she follows through by dropping her weight back down onto Astra, and rocking against her. 

 

Astra makes a strangled noise at the back of her throat at the movement, and oh, Alex hadn’t expected that, hadn’t expected Astra to be that vocal, at such a small movement. She breaks the kiss to press her lips to the curve of Astra’s jaw, a hot, wet kiss, and then trails a series of kisses down the long curve of her neck, dragging her teeth against the smooth skin. Astra tilts her head to the side to give her better access, and when Alex digs her teeth into the junction of her neck and shoulder and rolls her hips forward, Astra  _ moans _ , and holy shit, that sound does things to her. 

 

Alex slides her hand up underneath Astra’s jumper, and lets her nails drag against the woman’s stomach as she reaches higher, and Astra arches up into her when she cups the woman’s breast in her hand, and oh, Alex didn’t really know what she was expecting, but Astra is very responsive, and it occurs to her that the woman is being very loud, and they are not alone in the house. 

 

She rises up over Astra, removes her hand from behind the woman’s head, and presses a finger to her lips. ‘You know we’re not alone here, right?’ 

 

Astra’s eyes flash, and she opens her mouth, undoubtedly to say something sarcastic, but Alex rocks her hips forward again, and Astra catches her bottom lip between her teeth in an attempt to cut off a moan that isn’t quite silenced. Alex smirks. She can’t help it. Astra is a powerful, respected CEO, the once feared General who conquered Fort Rozz, and yet here, she is open and wanting and Alex is not ashamed to admit, silently, that it is an ego boost. 

 

Alex leans down to catch Astra’s lip between her teeth, and to kiss her again, and she sets a slow rhythm that draws breathless sounds from Astra, and if they were alone in the house, if they had more privacy, if she wasn’t worried about scarring Tanya, she wouldn’t try to quiet Astra, but as it is, they’re not alone. 

 

At some point, she manages to work Astra’s jumper up over her head, and Alex’s singlet is lost somewhere on the way, and oh, Astra is impossibly beautiful like that, with the firelight caressing her pale skin, bare and aching and spread open for Alex, and Alex thinks that she loves her. 

 

She loves her, and she wants to make Astra forget all her fears about what is to come, she wants to make her forget everything but this circle of heat and firelight and tenderness, and so she winds her fingers in Astra’s hair to tilt her head to the side, and slides her other hand down between her thighs. 

 

She brings Astra towards release with steady strokes of her fingers, with kisses that trail from her neck and down over her chest, digging her teeth into her neck and collarbone, and she judges how close the woman is by the sounds she makes, sounds that go directly to Alex’s gut, sounds that have her aching, and the way the woman’s hands fliter lightly over her skin. 

 

Astra touches her like she’s afraid of hurting her, afraid of being unable to restrain herself like this, when she is so close to coming undone. One of her hands presses against Alex’s back, and her touch is searing, keeping Alex pulled flush against her, torsos sliding together, and the other is wound tightly in the carpet, so tightly that when Alex glances down, she can see that Astra has torn up the fibres. She slides her hand out from behind Astra’s head again, runs her fingers gently down her arm, and finds her hand. 

 

Alex links their fingers together, and perhaps it is the added intimacy of the gesture, perhaps it is the way Alex is attempting to ground Astra, while simultaneously bringing her apart, but when Alex presses the heel of her palm down against her and rolls her hips forward again, grinding down on Astra’s thigh to find that blissful friction, the sound Astra makes is like a sob, like a desperate, unashamed plea that sounds suspiciously like the start of Alex's name. Alex picks up the pace, presses her lips against that sensitive spot beneath the woman’s jaw, drags her teeth up over the sharp curve, and quirks her fingers. 

 

Astra’s entire body shudders on release, and she  _ keens. _ Alex kisses her hastily to silence her, and as the sound vibrates through Alex, it is easier than she imagined, to let Astra’s release trigger her own, to fall over that precipice with her, their hands linked so tightly that she thinks her fingers might be bruised, it is easy, and wonderful, to submit to that cascade of heat and stars. 

 

She comes back to herself to find Astra still trembling beneath her, and the knowledge that tomorrow, she will have five round bruises on her back from where Astra clutched at her. Astra has that hand pressed over to her forehead, and her eyes are closed. She is breathing shakily, and Alex feels inordinately proud of herself. She withdraws, wiping her fingers on the edge of her discarded singlet, and rolls onto her side beside the woman, propping her head up in her hand. She runs her thumb over the back of Astra’s hand slowly, and drops a kiss to her shoulder.  ‘Are you still with me?’ 

 

Astra’s lips curve in a lazy smile, and she huffs a laugh. ‘Smugness does not suit you, Alex’. 

 

Alex shrugs one shoulder, and her heart aches, because Astra is so, so beautiful, and she wishes she could find the words to tell her that, to tell her that she shines so brightly that she could eclipse the very stars. 

 

Kara has always reminded her of the sun, bright and burning and golden. Astra is a softer light, but it is no less blinding, it is silver and gentle and sharp, all at once, illuminating the things that shadows wish to hide. If Kara is the light, and the life of the world, Astra is that beacon in the dark that reassures you that you are not alone. 

 

She is the glittering light on the path that inevitably leads towards home. 

 

Alex becomes aware of the way Astra is looking at her, her mouth curved in a soft, reverent smile. Alex doesn’t think she’ll ever get tired of the way Astra looks at her, with a hint of awe wrapped up in warmth and affection. She’s not sure how she came to deserve such a look, but if feels like a little treasure, a little gift, every time. Astra reaches up, and tucks Alex’s hair behind her ear, traces the curve of her cheek and the line of her jaw, and pulls her in for a long, lazy kiss, nothing like the heat of moments before.  She pulls back, and leans her forehead against Alex’s collarbone. She releases a long sigh that is like a caress ghosting over Alex’s skin. ‘I am not sure if I have done anything to deserve you, Alexandra. But I cannot complain’. 

 

Alex wants to laugh, at that. Instead, she lies down on her back beside Astra, and draws the discarded blanket over them. The fire is still burning low, and Astra is warm and solid and soft when she presses in close beside her, resting her head on Alex’s shoulder. Alex runs her fingers down Astra’s arm absently, in a way she hopes is soothing. ‘You deserve whatever you want, Astra’. 

 

Astra hums softly, and the weight of her seems to increase, like she is relaxing entirely, like she is letting go. ‘Well I believe I’ve made it very clear that I want you’. 

 

Alex can’t remember the last time someone told her that she was wanted, and she clears her throat in an attempt to ease the tight restriction around her throat. The thing is, Astra  _ makes  _ her feel wanted, she has for a long time, long before this, when she is finally voicing it. ‘Well I want you, too. And I’m not going to let this’, she lifts her other hand from beneath the blanket, and waves it in the air, mimicking the gesture Astra made at the very beginning of this conversation, ‘get in the way. We’ll get through all this, Astra. We’ll be fine’. 

 

Astra turns her face to press a kiss against Alex’s skin. ‘You make it very easy to believe such a thing’. 

 

‘I promise you, Astra. We’re coming out of this’. 

 

Astra sighs again. ‘Right now, Brave One, I believe you’. 

 

Alex continues to run her fingers down Astra’s arm, tracing patterns on her back, and her fingers run over raised ridges, over patches of skin that are not as smooth as the rest, over a few faint indentations, and she decides that one day, when this is over, she will learn those scars, she will map them out, and she will memorise every tale that matches them. 

 

_ I want you _ , Astra had said, and she’d said it easily, like she’d never doubted it, like it was all she’d ever wanted. 

 

Alex thinks that there is a kind of bravery in that admittance, because she remembers how Astra had said that she’d been wanting to kiss her for a long time, and perhaps she had been afraid to. 

 

Maybe one day Alex will be brave enough to tell the woman that she loves her. 

 

 

~ ~ ~

 

 

Weeks later, they win the war, but the work does not end with Myriad’s destruction. 

 

They spend weeks chasing down the last remnants of Non’s army. Astra makes Non pay for what he tired to do to Tanya, for what he did to Alex, it doesn’t matter if he didn’t deal the blows, he ordered it, and those others that were responsible give themselves up, rather than face her rage. 

 

They are exhausted by the end of it, all three of them, and when it is over, when the last of them have been hunted and caught and contained, Astra wraps her arms around both of them, and takes them back to her house. 

 

Home.

 

Kara collapses into the first bedroom she passes, and Alex knows from experience that they’ll wake up tomorrow to find that Kara has devoured every edible thing in the cupboards to replenish herself. 

 

Astra takes Alex’s hand, and leads her to their bedroom. It is theirs, because since that day, weeks ago, when Alex saved Tanya, Alex’s transition to living in Astra’s house pretty much became permanent. It’s not the first time that they have slept together, not at all, in any version or sense of the word, but it is the first time that they have done so with Kara in the same house, and it feels strangely huge, even though all they do that night is quite literally, sleep. 

 

Alex wakes in the morning to an empty bed, and a sticky note stuck to her hand that simply reads,  _ good morning, brave one _ , and it makes her smile, despite how tired she feels. 

 

Alex pads down the stairs, a hand pressed to the wall to steady herself, because she feels so  _ tired _ , like their are cobwebs draped behind her eyes, like there is fog clouding her mind, and she feels a little light in the chest, drained and exhausted. 

 

Kara is sitting at the kitchen counter, her chin resting heavily in her hand, her eyes drooping closed, and her other arm is draped over Tanya’s shoulders. Tanya is leaning against Kara’s shoulder, her curly hair wild from sleeping, as if she has only just gotten up. 

 

They both look exhausted, and in comparison, Astra looks wide awake. She is moving about the kitchen in a pair of blue pyjama pants covered with the iconic red ‘S’, that huge, oversized jumper that once caught Alex so off guard, and a ridiculous, flowery apron. Her hair is pulled back into a loose bun, and there is a smudge of flour on her cheek. She’s twirling a wooden spoon in her hand, and Alex breathes in deeply, inhaling the welcoming smell of coffee, and something else, something sweet. Astra glances up as Alex approaches, and grins, and Alex feels her lips quirk in a responding smile, despite the exhaustion weighing down on her. 

 

When she gets closer, Astra reaches for her, and presses a quick kiss to her forehead. ‘Sit’, she says, and Alex suddenly finds herself holding a warm cup, the welcoming smell of coffee suffusing her senses, ‘pancakes are coming’. 

 

Alex stares at Astra, at the smudge of flour on her cheek, at the wisps of hair falling over her forehead, and the affection and warmth in her eyes, and huffs out a tired laugh. ‘God, I love you’, she says, bringing the coffee cup up to her lips, and she doesn’t really realise what she’s said, until Astra’s eyes go very wide, and the wooden spoon in her hand snaps in two. 

 

There is a long silence, where Alex just stares at Astra, her heart beating very hard, barely able to breathe, and then Tanya squeals, and Kara throws her hands up in the air and says, ‘oh by Rao,  _ finally _ ’. 

 

Alex tears her gaze away from Astra to stare at her sister. ‘What?’

 

Kara is laughing, her eyes bright and shining, as if the exhaustion has lifted from her. ‘I thought it would take another crisis for you to say that’. 

 

Alex knows that she has gone bright red, because oh, she didn’t mean to say that, not like that, not so casually, but when she glances back at Astra, she sees that the woman is smiling, bright and beautiful, and there is gleam in her eyes that almost looks like tears. 

 

Astra steps closer, cups Alex’s chin, and her hand is covered in pancake mixture, but Alex doesn’t care, and then she kisses her, and she tastes like maple syrup and coffee and home, and Alex feels the anxiety drain from her, she feels herself  _ melt _ . Astra presses her lips to Alex’s cheek, and whispers, ‘I love you too, Alexandra’. 

 

Kara groans. ‘You two are so gross, you know that? My teeth are rotting’. 

 

Astra pulls away, and turns to frown at her niece. She looks genuinely confused. ‘How can your teeth be rotting, Kara? Have you been exposed to something? Should I be worried?’ 

 

Alex tunes out of the conversation, because she is stunned, because she is in love and Astra is in love and oh, this kind of life, the domesticity and casual affection, it is something she never thought she’d have. Tanya appears by her side, and when Alex bends down, the girl whispers, ‘she’s been waiting for you to say that’. 

 

Alex laughs, and she still feels light in the chest, but it is for an entirely different reason. She sets her coffee down on the bench, grabs Tanya around the waist, and lifts her into the air, swinging her around as the girl laughs. ‘You are a  _ terror _ ’, she says, setting her down when the burn from her aching muscles becomes too much, ‘and you are  _ way  _ too much like your mother’. 

 

Tanya throws herself forward into Alex’s waiting arms, and giggles. ‘I love you too, Brave One’. 

 

Alex wonders when her life became this, coffee and pancakes and silly pyjamas, a girl with dimples and curly hair, when it became this, laughter and lightness and the brightness of her sister’s smile, this, the press of Astra’s lips to her skin and the warmth in her eyes. 

 

She doesn’t know when this became her life. 

 

But she’s indescribably glad that it did. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is technically the end but I'm gonna write a short epilogue later!
> 
> i hope this was all enjoyable and that it was an easy read i wrote most of this a year ago and added/fixed a few things so hopefully its not too choppy 
> 
> love u all enjoy domestic astra

**Author's Note:**

> this began as a challenge because my friend asked me if i knew how to write fluff, so, here we are!
> 
> also it got completely out of hand this is so long and i did not mean it to be this long and there is still another whole chapter to go god i have no self restraint when it comes to writing for these two
> 
> also yes i am aware that J'onn had a daughter called Tanya but i actually only remembered that like, yesterday, and by then it was too late
> 
> and yes, i am aware that it all happens very fast but literally okay Alex is the most useless lesbian and Astra is also like, a lot more open in this. 
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoyed!!


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